


Noie's Brother

by ToothPasteCanyon (DannyFenton123)



Series: Transcendence AU [20]
Category: Gravity Falls
Genre: Alternate Universe - Transcendence (Gravity Falls), Gen
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-01-30
Updated: 2019-10-04
Packaged: 2019-10-19 03:17:40
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 10
Words: 29,255
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17593598
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DannyFenton123/pseuds/ToothPasteCanyon
Summary: Fate sometimes rhymed, but Alcor felt like this one was a little on the nose. A newborn Mizar fading away in the hospital and a loving father pleading to him from behind a circle of candles.Fate sometimes rhymed, but Naomi Argenta just wants this stupid vampire to stop harassing her brother. It's making him go... weird.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This work is based on the amazing Return, Rewind, Rewrite by MaryPSue. Go and read it here: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2781551/chapters/6240008
> 
> Also a big thanks to StarlightSystem for helping me edit this story! You can check out their own awesome AO3 page here: https://archiveofourown.org/users/StarlightSystem/pseuds/StarlightSystem <3

                “I need you to save my daughter.”

                Fate sometimes rhymed, but Alcor felt like this one was a little on the nose. A newborn Mizar fading away in the hospital and a loving father pleading to him from behind a circle of candles. If this didn’t remind him of a certain family he once belonged to, he’d be concerned.

                …The sad thing is, it did take a while to click. Human memories, human emotions, were coming slowly to him this century. While they lagged behind, a toothy smile snaked across his features. He could smell sweet desperation here.

                “T̸ha͠t ͡w͏ill̶ ̵ co̴s͢t ͟ y̷ou.” He said, and the human cowered before him. Fear, lovely fear was written all over its squishy face.

                He felt a twinge. In the back of his mind, a thought: he shouldn’t be doing this. It caught him off guard; that piece of his mind had been awfully silent as of late.

                His smile faltered, but then the human spoke.

                “O-of course. I’ve researched what to offer you, I have everything you want. Candy-“

                Alcor’s lip curled. Not enough.

                “Icecream-“

                Not enough.

                “Lamb chops – I couldn’t find a real lamb in time, but-“

He raised a hand, and silenced the human.

                “Not e̸͉̜̫͓̻̤n͡o̝̼̤̬̕u̡͈gh̝̭̪͎̠,” He said, and the look on its face…

                That twinge again. Stronger. It only grew as he watched the human steel itself, take a deep breath, and close its eyes.

                “Then name your price. Please. I can’t-“ Its voice cracked. “I can’t lose her.”

                _Name your price_. Alcor felt that awesome rush at such an openended deal, but somehow, it felt hollow. Unsatisfying. The human extended a hand, looking down, bracing itself – no, himself – and Alcor didn’t want to take it, didn’t want to crack open the arm and pull out the soul like crab meat from its shell.

                No, no. This was all wrong. He wanted… what did he want? What was wrong with him? He stepped back.

                “I-“ He cringed as the human looked at him. “I need to think.”

                Back in the Mindscape, it came back to him. Their names.

                Lionel Sterling. Belle Sterling. And another.

                …Dipper. Dipper Sterling. That had been him. That had been a human.

                Him. A human. Now, why did he do that? He knew everything there was to know about humans, how to trick them, how to break them. Indeed, he knew so much more than any human could possibly comprehend; there was no way he could fit his power, his knowledge, his vastness into such a fragile vessel. He’d have to cut pieces off, block pieces out… and why would he do that? Why would he weaken himself in such a way?

                Memories. Long lost memories, of laughter, of warmth. Of days spent in front of the TV, eating popcorn, somebody leaning against him. Mizar – no, Belle hugging him tight. Hugging. He remembered hugging, how it felt to have someone squeeze him tight like they didn’t ever want to let go.

                He remembered squeezing back. He remembered how much he loved them. That twingy feeling again - how had he once had so much of it, so much to give, and so much to receive, and now…?

                …

                He wanted it again. He wanted it so much it ached. He’d forgotten, but now he remembered, now it was there and _he needed it_.

                Alcor knew right then what price he was going to name.

 

* * *

 

                “Can I have your fries, Dipper?”

                Before he could answer, Naomi reached over and grabbed a fistful. He rolled his eyes.

                “Oh, yeah. Sure. Thank you so much for asking.”

                She grinned at him mid-chew. “Ah’m so p’lite.”

                “Ugh, Noie, that’s gross.”

                “What’ch grosh? Thish?”

                “I’m gonna throw my juice at you.”

                He picked up the packet and pretended to aim at her face. She cackled.

                “Oh, yeah? Well, too bad for you, I haven’t opened my milk yet!” She grabbed the carton. “This is mutantly assigned destruction!”

                “That’s… not quite the phrase-“

                Noie jerked her arm back like she was going to throw it, and he flinched.

                “Ha! I got you! I won!”

                “What? No, I just-”

                “I win, you lose, nananananana!”

                “Oh, my god, Noie.” Dipper snorted, and shook his head. “You’re ridiculous.”

                “Takes one to know one, doofus. Hey, you want my milk?”

                “You don’t want it?”

                “Nah.” She snagged another fry from his tray. “I’m not that hungry.”

                They sat there for the whole lunch hour. At an empty table in a busy cafeteria, they laughed the time away.

 

* * *

 

                “Argh.”

                “You okay, bro?”

                They were sitting at the back of a public bus. Dipper put his face in his hands and gestured at the man who just got on.

                “He’s got an enchantment, or something.” He paused, kneading his forehead. “Pretty strong.”

                Noie put a hand on his shoulder, and then she turned to the front.

                “Hey! Excuse me, Mr Dude With the Phone in the front.” She waved until she got his attention. Dipper grabbed her arm.

                “No, no, you don’t have to-“

                “Hi! Yeah, hi! Sorry, my brother’s a little magic sensitive. Is there a way you can tone it down for a few minutes or something?”

                The man reached into his bag and tapped something. He looked up again. “My magi-orb was compiling something. I turned it off; is that better?”

                The pressure eased a little inside Dipper’s skull. He straightened. “Yeah, that’s… that’s better. Sorry, thank you so much.”

                Noie nudged him. “See? Never hurts to ask.”

                “I guess you’re right. Still-”

                 “I’m always right!”

                “Ehhh…”

                “Always.”

                They were still a couple minutes away from their stop. Dipper’s head still ached; he tried not to rub it too much, for the sake of the poor man up in front. He rested his chin on his knuckes instead, and listened along to Noie as she talked about the weekend.

                “I caaaan’t wait for Friday. Seriously.”

                “Mmmhm.”

                “I mean I know it’s only Monday, but it was soooo loooong. It always feels so long.”

                “Mmm."

                “They cancelled soccer on Saturday, so I’m gonna bug Grandpa about the car again. I mean, I’m so close to driving – I can taste the freedom! He’s gotta take us out to a parking lot sometime- oh, shoot, the stop! I’ll pull the thing. Hah, we nearly missed it. Come on!”

                “Mmmhm.”

                “Hey, Earth to Dipping Sauce. Hellooo? Dipper?”

                “What?” Dipper looked up, and saw her standing by the bus doors. He grabbed his bag. “Oh, sorry! Coming!”

                He hurried after her. They stepped off onto the pavement; it wasn’t far until they turned and headed down a row of houses. Third from the right was a nice little house with a patchy lawn. Dipper cut across the grass, while Noie skipped along the stepping stones.

                “Keys?” Dipper asked. Noie rolled her eyes.

                “You always say that like I’ve forgotten them. They’re right- where’s my lanyard?”

                Dipper put his backpack down and fished out his copy from the front pocket.

                “You’re a lifesaver, bro.”

                With a grin, he unlocked the door. It was a little stuffy inside, as it always was – Noie had fought battle after battle about being allowed to open the window with the heater on. It was quiet but for the sound of voices coming from the back.

                Then Noie kicked off her shoes, threw her backpack to the ground and yelled. “WE’RE HOME!”

                “Lock the door!” Came the reply.

                “We just did that!”

                “What?”

                “We just did-“

                “What? I can’t hear you, come over here!”

                Dipper took off his shoes and followed Noie into the living room. The TV was playing some commercial, and two sets of eyes peeled themselves away from the set when they came in.

                “There you are.” Their grandfather sat forwards. He had a head of brilliant white hair, and his bushy eyebrows knit together in a frown. “You don't have to yell across the house. What did you want to say?”

                “I was just saying I locked the door.”

                “Oh." He nodded at them. "Good. Thank you.” 

                Behind their grandfather, a woman waved. “How was your day at school?”

                Dipper shrugged. “It was alright. Nothing much-“

                “Granny, I’m so glad you asked! I didn’t fail my trigonometry test today!”

                “That’s wonderful, sweetie!”

                Her grandfather crossed his arms. “What score did you get?”

                “A sixty three!”

                “You know,” Her grandmother gestured at the air. “Back when I was at school, I didn’t really like the… the, um, the adding and minusing-“

                “Math, you mean.”

                “Oh, thank you, David. Yes, math. But, you know, I asked my teacher, ‘When are we ever going to use this?’ And you know what she said? You know, she said, she said, we used… she said…”

                Her grandmother frowned. Noie exchanged glances with Dipper.

                “She said…” Her grandmother paused, and laughed it off. “And it's gone. Oh, well, it’ll come back. Anyway, how was your day at school?”

                “Um-“

                David’s jaw clenched. “You just said that.”

                “Did I?”

                “Yes, Allie. Yes, you did.”

                The silence stretched, and Noie clapped her hands. “Right! Good talk. Anyway, we’re gonna go to our room. Nice to see you guys!”

                "Yes, it's always so nice of you to come by and visit! Aren't you going to say goodbye, David?"

                David sank back into the couch. "Make sure you study. Don't be mucking around. I'm talking to you, Naomi."

                "Whaaat? What are you talking about?" She grinned. "I never muck around."

                He gave a wry smile. "Is that so. Seeya around, kids."

                Noie walked back down the hall, Dipper following closely behind her. As they turned the corner, they could hear Allie saying, “So what is this show we’re watching?”


	2. Chapter 2

                There was nothing around for miles, no houses, no telephone poles, barely anything taller than a tree. Rolling fields of long grass rustled in the wind, lit only by the light of the moon. Shadowy figures dotted the landscape – they were cows, lying down for a good sleep.

                One lay still under a lone tree. A liquid glistened on its neck. The tree rustled – not from the wind.

                _Crack_.

                Something tore off one of its limbs. Bark snapped like bone, and the branch was dragged a little distance into the moonlight.

                It was a small figure, in long robes. They hefted the tree branch – it was several times their size - stabbed it into the ground, and drew a circle in the grass. It took a while; they were doing this with care. Then, they set the branch down and walked over to the cow.

They touched its neck; blood got on their fingers, and they licked it off. The figure hesitated, there. Then they shook their head, grabbed the cow’s legs and dragged it into the centre of the circle.

                A gust of wind came like a wave over the fields. Cloak flapping in the current, the figure stepped back, bowed their head, and began to chant.

                “Splendidum stella,” they began, and raised their arms. “te invoco. Te invoco ut facere voluntatem meam. Dico nomen tuum: Alcor!”

                It got cold, then. The figure shivered, and watched the cow shimmer and fold itself out of reality. The lines in the grass glowed gold, and a darkness materialized above the circle.

                They leaned forwards as it took on a humanlike shape…

                And then it receded, and an answering machine appeared in its place.

                “What?” The figure stared as it began to play one of its karaoke songs. She clenched her fingers. “Alcor, what are you doing? Where the hell are you? I need-”

                “ _Please leave a message after the scream_!”

                Lucy Ann took off her hood. After a bloodcurdling cry echoed from the circle, she stepped forwards.

                “Hey, dude, Alcor, it’s me! It’s Lucy Ann! Why aren’t you answering your circles? I’ve been trying for days, I…” She shot a glance at the horizon. “I don’t have much time. I need your help, Al. Can you hear this? Can you hear me at all? Give me a sign, something, anything.”

                She waited, fists clenched, claws digging into her skin. The answering machine kept playing, ‘Disco Girl’, and the circle’s golden glow gently pulsed. Nothing happened.

                On the horizon, however, something did.

The sky began to light up in the east. It was like the sun rising, but it was all wrong: it wasn’t a dull red, but a harsh, clinical white. It moved fast, extinguishing stars as it swept across the heavens, getting brighter, getting closer.

                Lucy Ann felt her heart catch in her throat. She stepped back, and she was about to run for it when the circle flared up. Eight golden lines shot into the sky; she watched as they fixed on the Big Dipper constellation.

                The stars began to rotate.

                In the east, the glow was getting brighter. Lucy Ann hissed as the light hit her skin, and she drew up her hood again. She squinted up at the Big Dipper. The constellation was fading as the glow closed in, but she could still make out the stars of the panhandle; like a crooked finger, they pointed west.

                Lucy Ann nodded. “Okay. Okay, I’ll find you.”

                She backed away, turned, and ran for the hills, her cloak billowing out behind her.

 

* * *

 

                Noie wasn’t very good at getting to sleep. Dipper could lie down on his bunk bed and be comatose within minutes, but she never got that. Apparently her brain needed some good ol’ staring up at the ceiling before it felt like switching off.

                That was really boring, so you can imagine how she became a bit of a night person. She did dishes. She read books. Sometimes, if it was really hot and stuffy inside, she teased the creaky backdoor open and sat out on the porch.

                It was breezy that night. The pages of her book fluttered as she turned them. Her hair blew into her face, and she brushed it back.

                “Pteh, pteh, hair in my mouth.” Noie wiped a strand off her face. “Get outta there, little buddy.”

                She read for a little while. Slowly, a cosy, sleepy feeling set in; her eyelids grew heavy and the words on the page started to muddle together. She dog-eared the corner, stood up, and stretched out her arms.

                “Alright. Bedtime.”

                The backdoor squeaked as Noie nudged it open. Once she slipped through the smallest opening she could manage, she eased it closed behind her and walked through the living room. It was dark, but she’d done this a million times. She could get around here blind.

                Noie then promptly stubbed her toe on a box sitting by the wall.

                “Oh, ffffffffff…” She dropped her voice to a hiss. “…fffun times. Ow. Ow. Oh, that hurt.”

                She limped her way over to the bedroom door. It was ajar; she started to open it, but then she heard something, a sound, coming from within. She froze.

                A voice. Dipper’s voice, moaning. It was low and quiet and broken, and it made Noie’s hair stand on end. She shoved the door open and rushed over to their bed.

                Her brother was on the bottom bunk. She could barely see him at first, but she got closer and saw how he was holding his head, his fingers digging into his hair. His face, contorted in pain.

                “Dipper?” Noie shook him. It did nothing. She shook him harder. “Dipper, what’s wrong? Hey, wake up!”

                His frown deepened, and he mumbled something almost like words.

                “Dipper?”

                “’m here, I’m over here, I’m…”

                “What? Dipper. Dipper!”

                He cracked an eye open. Then he squeezed them both shut, and turned over.

                “Ohhh…” He groaned. “My head…”

                “You okay?” Noie stopped shaking him, but she kept a hand on his shoulder. “What’s wrong? Bro?”

                He didn’t say anything.

                “Do you want me to get Grandpa?” She stood up. “I’m gonna go get him, okay?”

                “No.” Dipper waved an arm at her. “Don’t… It’s fine. I’m fine.”

                “You don’t sound so fine.”

                “No, I am fine, it’s… It’s just a headache.”

                “Dipper…”

                “Please, it’s fine. Just leave it, Noie. Noie.”

                “…Okay.” Noie frowned at him. “You goober. Don’t scare me like that. Can I at least get you an ibuprofen or something?”

                “Yeah. That would, that would be good.” He rolled onto his pillow, and mumbled, “Thanks.”

                She patted his shoulder. It was a little cold; she drew his covers over them.

                “Don’t mention it, bro.” Noie stood. “I’ll be right back. Don’t explode or anything while I’m gone, okay?”

                There was a muffled, “No promises,” and she snorted.

                “Alright. Uno momento.”


	3. Chapter 3

                “Dude, I’m supposed to be the sleepy one in the morning.” She nudged Dipper, who was halfway down to his cereal bowl. When he didn’t respond, her smile faded. “You okay?”

                “Ugh…” He rubbed his head. “I’m okay, yeah.”

                “Still got a headache?”

                “Yeah.”

                Noie made a face. From the other end of the table, her grandfather cleared his throat. “Elbows off the table.”

                “Grandpa! Can’t you see he’s _suffering_?”

                “Mabel, it’s fine.”

                “Mabel?” Noie snorted. “Who’s Mabel?”

                “Suffering, is he.” Her grandfather rolled his eyes. “Alright. Elbows off the table, Naomi.”

                She drew her arms back, and leaned over to Dipper. “Who’s Mabel?”

                “I don’t know. Sorry.”

                “Is she your giiiirrrlfrrriend?”

                “What? No, I just-“

                “Mabel and Dipper, sitting in a tree-“

                “Are you serious? We are way too old for this.”

                “ K-I-S-S-I-N-G…”

                “Oh, my god, Noie.”

                While Noie was making smoochy faces at her brother, her grandmother walked out of the bedroom. She made a beeline for the door, and David leaned back.

                “Allie?” Her grandfather asked, his brows furrowed. “Where do you think you’re going?”

                “Oh, I’m just going shopping. I won’t be a moment.”

                “Uh, no, you’re not.”

                She frowned. “Why not?”

                “We’re fine on groceries, for one. What are you looking for?”

                Allie shuffled in place. “Well, we need to go shopping.”

                “For what?”

                “We need to go shopping. I won’t be a moment, David, I just-”

                “No, no, you’re confused-”

                “I’m not confused.”

                “Well…” He stood up. “Come on, why don’t you have some breakfast, eh? That’ll make you feel better.”

                “I’m not confused.” She muttered, but she let him steer her towards the table. “We need to go shopping.”

                Noie put on a smile as Allie sat down next to her. “Morning, Grandma! What things do you need? Maybe we can make a list.”

                “We’re running low on ibuprofen.” Dipper said from between his hands. Allie looked over at him.

                “Got a bit of a headache, dear?”

                “Yeah. It’s fine, though.”

                “Aww, that’s no good, is it? Make sure you drink lots of water. If that doesn’t make you feel better, you might be coming down with something.” She laughed. “And if that’s happening, I’m getting the hazmats. There’s only one thing worse than being old, and that’s being old and sick!”

                From across the table, David snorted.

                “Don’t worry, Grandma.” Noie nudged her brother. “Water police are out in full force today. Alright, so we need ibuprofen – and, oh, we’re out of bananas. What else?”

* * *

 

                On the bus, Noie watched her brother carefully. His nose was buried in a textbook – the big nerd – and from the outside he looked fine, but she could see the slight squint in his eyes, the subtle wince every time they went over a bump.

                “Jeez,” She said. “That headache really did a number on you, huh?”

                Dipper blinked. “Huh? Oh, yeah. Yeah.”

                He didn’t sound like he was really listening. Noie rolled her eyes as he turned a page.

                “Dipper. Dipper!”

                “What?”

                “I was saying, that headache really did a number on you, huh?”

                “I guess.” He kept his eyes on his homework. “I’m fine, though.”

                “What do you think it was? Like a magic storm passing over or something? I checked the weather but they didn’t say anything about it.”

                He just shrugged.

                “Hellooo? Am I talking to my brick wall bro? Dipper? Dipper?”

                “I heard you the first time.” Dipper set down his textbook a little hard. “Yeah, it was weird, but it’s gone now, okay? We can stop talking about it.”

                “Ooh, somebody’s a bit of a grumpasaurus this morning!”

                “Noie.”

                “Grumpy grumpasaurus.”

                “Noie-“

                “Grumpa-Dipper-saurus-rex, seen here in his natural habitat-“

                “Noie, stop it. Just stop it, okay?”

                She sat back, a smile frozen on her face. “What?”

                “Look, I’m not in the mood.” Dipper turned back to his textbook. “Just stop talking about the headache thing, okay? It’s fine. Everything is fine.”

                Noie laughed a little nervously. “Well, sheesh, sorry for trying to lighten the mood. I’m just trying to make you feel better, you know?”

                He didn’t say anything. Noie frowned, and turned away to look out the window. Streets and streets of houses whooshed past the glass. The bus rumbled steady and low, but otherwise it was quiet. Uncomfortably so, for Noie.

                “Just worried about you, you know.” She said, if only to fill the stretching silence. “That’s all.”

* * *

 

                Hey, unicorns. Cool. She chased them around, and she was chasing them, and she was chasing them, and she was chasing them-

                The bell rang. Noie sat up with a jolt.

                “Hng? Wassat?” She blinked and wiped some drool off the side of her mouth. “Ugh, fell asleep. Hey, Dipper, what’d we take notes… on?”

                Dipper was slumped over his papers in a similar manner. His pen was still moving, making little squiggle marks down the side of the page. Noie snorted.

                “Hey, bro. Bro bro. Dipper.” Dipper groaned, and she shook him. “Get up, sleepyhead. Class is done, we gotta go to history.”

                “No... Mabel…”

                “Again with the Mabel. Who is she? Besides your girlfriend, of course.”

                He lifted his chin. “What? Mabel?”

                “Yeah, weirdo.”

                “I dunno. Sorry, that name’s just...” He sat up and rubbed his forehead. “Rattling around my head today.”

                Noie snorted, but it died off as she watched Dipper press his palms against his eye sockets. She opened her mouth, but hesitated and closed it again. She turned away to her desk and started packing up her things.

                Next to her Dipper grunted, and then stretched. Finally he looked around the room and noted the empty seats and the students slowly filtering in through the door. He frowned.

                “Wait, did the bell already ring?”

                “Yeah, I told you that already.”

                He grabbed his bag. “Oh, shoot! We’re gonna be late!”

                “We will?” Noie remembered history was all the way on the other side of campus. “Huh, I guess we will.”

                “Come on, we can make it if we run!”

                He swung his backpack over his shoulders and booked it for the door. With a snicker and a shake of the head, Noie took off after him. Through the halls they ran, down the stairs, outside and then across the courtyard. Back inside – a lovely rush of cool AC. Up another flight of stairs, through another echoing hall, right up to the door at the very end.

                Red-faced and panting, the two of them took their seats just as the bell sounded. Noie slipped her backpack off and let it flop to the floor.

                “I think…” She started. “Next time… I’ll just be late.”

                “Hey… we made it.” Dipper took out his notes. He frowned. “Uh, do you by any chance know what we were doing last hour?”

                Noie laughed. “Nope! I was a-snoozing.”

                “Yeah, I figured.” He rubbed his eyes again. “I don’t know how you do it, Noe. I hate sleeping in class.”

                She just shrugged. Up ahead, the teacher was pulling down the projector screen. Some text had been shining on the wall; the blank white surface made them legible.

                ‘Quarter Final Project’, it read. Noie groaned.

                “Boo. I forgot this was today.”

                The teacher turned to the front. “Good morning, class. We’ll be starting our final projects today. This is an assessment, and it will go into your gradebooks as such. And this is also instead of a test, _so_ , I’m expecting some high quality work out of all of you.”

                Noie gave a silent fist pump. Dipper sank lower into his desk.

                “Aww,” He muttered. “Am I the only one who doesn’t actually mind tests?”

                “Yup.”

                “We’ve been studying the immediate Post-Transcendental period for a number of weeks now,” continued the teacher. “so in groups of three, you’ll be assigned one event from this time period to make a poster of. You’ll have to refer to your notes or do some research of your own to complete this project. It’s due one week from now. Any questions?”

                Noie raised her hand.

                “Yes, Naomi?”

                “Can we choose our groups?”

                “No. They’ll be chosen randomly.” A groan went up from the classroom, which the teacher pointedly ignored. He picked up a box full of names, and shook it. “If there aren’t any more questions, I’ll start picking groups now.”

                Noie turned to her brother. “Fingers crossed I get you!”

                “That’d be cool. But statistically, it’s not likely-“

                “Cross your fingers, bro! That’ll make it happen for sure!”

                “I mean, that’s not really-“

                “For sure!”

                Dipper sighed, smiled, and crossed middle over pointer. Noie grinned.

                “Yeah! That’s the spirit!”

                “Alright,” Up in front, the teacher started drawing names. “First group has the Antarctica Rescue, and it’s James, Katy, and Naomi.”

                “Goddammit!” Noie blinked when she caught her teacher’s sharp look. “Oh. Sorry. Said that wayyy too loud. Uh, John and Katy, you guys are cool. Whoever you are.”

                There were a couple sniggers from the corner of the class, and the teacher cleared his throat. “Moving on…”

                He kept choosing names. Dipper got put with Ryan and Max. At the end of it, he stepped away and let them get into their groups. Noie stood up.

                “Seeya, bro.” She waved. “Hope your people are good.”

                “You too.”

                With that, Noie slinked off to find her group. The girl, Katy, was sitting in the back corner of the classroom on her phone. She didn’t look up when Noie pulled up a chair.

                “Hey, girl! It’s Katy, right?” Noie drummed her fingers on the desk, waiting for a response. She looked around. “Uhh, where’s the other guy?”

                Katy glanced up. “Oh, J’s not here today.” She looked back at her phone. “I’m texting him.”

                “Ah. Heh, you telling him he’s gotta get his butt over here so he can help us with the project?”

                “Actually, he’s got the floo.”

                “Aww, no! That sucks. Yeah, I was just, uh,” Noie cleared her throat. “jokin’ around. Horsin’ around. So! Antarctica! Gonna do a poster on that. Hey, you want to do the research or do you wanna make the poster? I like making posters, but I’m happy doing either. My bro’s good at research; I’ll pawn that off on him, hah!”

                Katy waved a hand in her direction.  “Yeah, yeah, cool, you can do that…”

                Then she snorted at something on her phone. Noie’s smile stretched.

                “Alright, looks like I’m doing everything. Great. _Looove_ group projects.” She pulled out her notebook and flipped through it. “Now do I have notes on the Antarctica thing? Not here, not here… Oh, here it is! Aaaand I just wrote the title. Cool. Good job, me.”

                She snapped it closed and turned around in her seat. “I’ll just steal Dipper’s – hey, yo, Dip! Dipper! Can I borrow your notes, pretty please?”

                Dipper was sitting with his group, facing with his back to her. He wasn’t that far away, but he didn’t seem to hear her at all. Noie sighed, stood up, and walked over.

                “Dippingsauce? Can I borrow your…“

                Dipper’s thin, tired voice made her trail off. “… _please_ , just put it away for now?”

                There were two other guys in his group. The one on the right tried to wave him off. “Look, dude, I got Runes next period. Just hold on a sec, okay?”

                Dipper let out a quiet moan and rubbed his temples. At that moment, Noie cut in.

                “Hey, what’s going on?” She put a hand on his shoulder. “You alright, bro?”

                Dipper looked up at her, startled. “Oh! Hi, Noie! Uh, what are you doing here?”

                “What’s going on?”

                “I-it’s nothing, don’t worry about it…”

                She looked over to the guy on the right. He had a piece of notebook paper out and was writing on it. No, he was etching, and though most of the symbols he’d put down seemed to fizzle out as soon as he wrote them, she could see a couple of them glowing a steady magical blue.

                Magic. Runes. Noie frowned.

                “Dude. Put that away. Dipper gets a headache when he’s near magic.”

                “Noie, it’s fine.” Dipper tried to protest. “I’m handling this, you don’t need to-“

                “Oh, yes I do! Hello!” She leaned forwards and snapped in his face. “Are you listening? Put it away!”

                The guy shot her a look. “I can’t, sorry. It’s homework, it’s due next hour.”

                “Well you should have thought of that before you left it till last minute, huh?”

                “Noie-“

                “Yeah, but it's whatever.” The guy started writing again. “Look, I’m trying to be quick. It’s just a headache, right? He can deal with a headache for like, twenty seconds.”

                Noie’s smile dropped right off her face. She jerked over and snatched the paper.

                “Hey!”

                “Noie!”

                “Dude, you’re being a major jerk right now.” Noie held the paper up as he tried to grab for it. “I was trying to be nice, but it’s not ‘just a headache’. You know when he was three, there was this magic storm, and he got his head split right open. Dad had to take him to the hospital.”

                “Well, that’s a magic storm! It’s just a few runes, it’s fine-“

                “Oh, it is not.”

                He grabbed her arm and pulled. She switched the paper to her other hand and stuffed it in her mouth.

                The guy blinked. Then, his face drew back in disgust and he let go.

                “Oh, what the hell?”

                Noie grinned, and slid it out of her mouth with a long lick. She offered it back to him, now with a soggy stain trailing down the margin. “Here’s your homework back.” She chirped. “That’s what you wanted, right?”

                He didn’t take the paper. With a huff and glare that could sour grapes, he stalked back to his seat and flumped himself down. She watched him carefully, but he didn’t take out another sheet.

                Good. Noie folded the paper a couple times and stuck in it her pocket, like a trophy. Then she looked back and gave Dipper the thumbs up.

                He wasn’t smiling. When she walked back up to him again, he opened his mouth like he was going to say something, but then he closed it again.

                “See, bro? That’s how you deal with _major jerkasauruses_.” She shot a look at the guy, and then cackled to herself. “Fun times. Aaaanywaaayy, can I borrow your-?“

                “Notes. Yeah, sure, just take them.”

                Dipper’s curt tone caught her off guard. “Huh?”

                “Just take them, okay?” He unzipped his backpack, jerked out his notebook and thrust it at her. “Now go. We’ve got our own project, we’re kind of busy here.”

                Noie took it with a frown. “Uh… okay. Are you-“

                “Yes. I’m fine. Thank you for _all_ your help.” He stopped, and heaved a sigh. “Just go. I’ll see you at lunch.”

                With a sinking feeling in her chest, Noie backed up and walked away.

 

* * *

 

                Lunch. Noie stared down at her tray, and then up at Dipper. He was poking at his food with a spork, a frown creasing his features. Every so often, he’d take a breath like he was going to say something, but then he’d shake his head and let it out.

                He was mad at her for something. Noie tried her hardest to let him talk first, but the silence was unbearable. She slapped on a smile and leaned forwards.

                “Not, uh, not feeling hungry?”

                Dipper shot her a look. Her smile stretched.

                “No? Cool, that’s cool. Uh… lovely weather we’re having-“

                “Just stop. Please.”

                Noie frowned. “Alright. Rude. Well, are you gonna tell me what’s up or are you just gonna sit here being mad at me for some reason?”

                “Noie-“

                “Look, I don’t know what your problem is.” She crossed her arms. “You were all grumpy on the bus this morning, but then we were cool again, and now you’re mad again. What’s the deal with you?”

                “I’m not trying to be mad at you.” He rubbed his forehead. “I know you were trying to help with the guy in my group-“

                “Wait, you’re _mad_ at me for making him stop?”

                “I mean, sort of, yeah! Look, I-I was handling it, but then you came in and escalated the whole thing! You _ate_ his homework!”

                “I didn’t eat it.” She cracked a grin. “I should’ve. Then he’d have the perfect excuse: ‘My classmate ate my homework!”

                “Noie, come on! Now neither of them want to listen to me or do any of the work, so what am I supposed to do?”

                “Hey, my group sucked too. And if you think a jerk like that was ever gonna do his fair share, I’ve got a bridge to sell you.” She shrugged. “What’s the big deal? Look, I’ll help you with your poster if you’re stressing-“

                “That’s not the _point_!” Dipper slammed his hands down on the tray, and his juice toppled over. He glared at Noie. “You know, sometimes, I don’t want your help, okay? It’s like you think I can’t do anything by myself!”

                “What? No, I don’t!”

                “Then why are you just constantly asking me about my headaches even though I said I was fine? Why’d you feel the need to argue with the rune guy when I _said_ I could handle it?”

                “Well, no offense, Dipper, but you always say you’re fine, even when you’re not. And I know how you ‘handle’ people.” She imitated his voice. “Oh, can you please just maybe sorta stop doing that?’ You gotta be more assertive, bro. Sometimes, you gotta go all out. You gotta eat some homework.”

                “Well how am I ever gonna more assertive if you’re just gonna do it for me?”

                Noie gritted her teeth. “What? So I was just supposed to stand there? I’m not allowed to stick up for you?”

                “Noie-“

                “Look, screw me for being such an awful sister, but I have this thing where I care about you! Last night you were all moaning and muttering something, so yeah, maybe I didn’t want anyone else messing with your headache! Maybe I was worried about you! And you’re gonna yell at me for that?”

                “I know,” Dipper didn’t meet her eyes. “I _know_ you’re just trying to look out for me, a-and I appreciate it, I really do. But sometimes… I don’t know. It’s like you think you’ve got to be my mom or something.”

                Noie hesitated. Her chest, all puffed out from yelling, deflated somewhat, and she gave him a sad smile.

                “Well.” She started, quietly. “No one else is gonna be mom, right? So I… I don’t know.” She slumped forwards, and rested her elbows on her tray. “I don’t know.”

                It was quiet. Noie felt a hand, and she looked up to see Dipper reaching for her. She smiled, and linked hands with him.

                “I’m sorry, Noie.” Dipper said. “But, you know, I don’t want you to be my mom. You’re my sister. You’re my twin sister.”

                “Actually, I’m five minutes older, so that’d make me-” There was a squeeze on Noie’s hand, and the words died on her tongue. “Right. Sorry.”

                “Can we just… go back to that? Please?” Another squeeze. “Mystery Twins?”

                Mystery Twins?” Noie cocked an eyebrow at that. “What mysteries are we solving?”

                “I dunno. It sounds fitting, somehow.”

                “Alright then. Mystery Twins.” She smiled, and Dipper smiled right back. “Now eat your greens. Hah, I’m kidding! I am kidding, I promise.”


	4. Chapter 4

                “Noie. Noie, move your feet. Move- ow! Noie!”

                Noie was sitting on the top bunk, her feet dangling down to the desk Dipper was sitting at. She giggled and gave his hair another stroke with her toes.

                “No-ie,” He whined. “This is so gross.”

                “Good. Maybe you’ll wash your hair this week! Haha, zing!”

                Dipper rolled his eyes, caught one of her feet and started tickling it.

                “No! No! Haha, st-stop!” She drew them back. “Abort mission! Retreat!”

                She flopped down on the bed and threw the covers over herself. Dipper laughed.

                “Aren’t you supposed to be doing the posters?”

                “I am, I am!” The covers shifted, and Noie popped her head out. “I was just looking up a reference photo for California. How’s research going?”

                The computer was on a screensaver; Dipper wiggled the mouse. “Yeah, it’s pretty fascinating. You know that there’s still radio transmissions coming from old Antarctic research stations? There’s one that’s just been broadcasting a guy saying, ‘paper, paper, paper’ for thousands of years.”

                “Weird. Why paper?”

                “Dunno.” Dipper leaned back. “But you know what’s even weirder? Apparently people have been doing research on that guy’s voice, and he was one of the people who got rescued. So the question is, why’s his voice still in Antarctica?”

                “Oooh. I should draw a ghoster on my poster!”

                “Hah. Yeah, maybe you…”

                There was a loud bang from the front door. Dipper trailed off at the sound of David’s voice booming through the walls.

                “I checked outside, I went through the garbage can, it’s not there! Where on _earth_ did you put it, Aliie?”

                “Put what?”

                “My ring!”

                “Ring? Your wedding-”

                “Yes, _obviously_ , my wedding ring. What other ring would I be talking about?”

                “Don’t talk to me like that, David. Did you lose it? Where did you last-?”

                “ _I did not lose it! You_ said _you_ moved it somewhere safe! Where did _you_ last see it?”

                “I don’t know! Why would I move it? I don’t think I would do that.”

                “Well, you did.” A drawer slammed, and Noie flinched. “You did.”

                “David? David, I’m sorry. David?”

                Noie looked down at Dipper. He was sitting there frozen, a wide-eyed blankness on his expression as he tried to listen in. She frowned, and then she swung her legs back over the bed and stuck her feet in his face.

                “Wha- Noie!”

                “Foot attack!”

                “Oh, yeah? You know how well this ended last time, right?”

                He made a grab for her ankles, and she drew them back with a giggle. Dipper fixed his hair again.

                “Really, that is gross, though.” He paused at the sound of a door slamming, and then leaned forwards and started typing. “Why don’t I put some music on?”

                “Yeah! Put on that Disco Girl song you love!”

                “Wha-what? I don’t know that- I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

                “Disco giiiirl, comiiiing throoough, that girl is youuuu-“

                “Hey, look at this!” Dipper cut in. “Marcia Sinderson. You like her songs, right?”

                “Not as much as you, bro!”

                Dipper’s eyebrows drooped, but they shot back up again when Noie let out a, “Wow!”

                “What is it?”

                “Look!” Noie leaned halfway off of the bunk to show him a picture on her phone. “This is California before the Transcendence! Isn’t it huuge?”

                Dipper blinked. “Whoa. That does look… huge. It looks…”

                He trailed off, still staring at the picture. Noie raised an eyebrow. “You okay there, bro? Hello? Earth to Dipper?”

                Dipper didn’t respond for a long moment. “Huh,” he finally said, tearing himself away to look up at her with a strange expression. “Yeah. It used to be big.”

                Noie laughed uncomfortably. “Hah! Um, didn’t realise this was gonna be such a major revelation to you.”

                She drew back to sit on the bed. Dipper hesitated, and then turned to type on the computer again. Noie shot him glances; she watched him reach up with a hand and slowly massage his temple. She watched him open his mouth, close it, think for a little, and then turn to her.

                “Noie?”

                Noie pretended to look up. “Yeah?”

                “You know Monday night?” He started abruptly, then paused. “When I got that headache?”

                “Yeah?”

                “I um… I had a really weird dream that night too. Which was weird by itself, because I don’t really get dreams, but I did, and-“

                “What happened in your dream?”

                “Well, it was dark, and there was a girl there.” He rubbed his head some more. “She was calling for help? She was calling for my help.”

                Noie tried for a grin. “Sounds like a typical nightmare, bro. I always get one about this test calling my name. ‘Noie! Noie! You must take me!’ It’s always in Ms Leonard’s voice, which is weird ‘cause studio art doesn’t even _have_ a written test. Wait… what if it’s from the future? Plot twist!”

                They both laughed a little at that. Dipper trailed off first.

                “Yeah… I recognized her, too. The girl in my dream.” He started to frown again. “But also I didn’t really know who she was? She just felt really, _really_ familiar, and I wanted to help her but I couldn’t say anything or do anything and then everything started brightening and… I woke up, with a massive headache.”

                He didn’t say anything else; he just kept rubbing his head, like the memory of the pain brought it back a little. The song playing on the computer faded out, and it was quiet.

                Noie frowned. Before she could say anything, there was a knock on the door. She sat up.

                “Hello?”

                The door opened slowly, and Allie popped her head in. “Hey, kids. How’s your evening going?”

                “Yeah.” Dipper said. “It’s going good.”

                “The best!” Noie added, and swung her legs down. “What do you need, Granny?”

                Allie’s smile drooped a little. “Um, David’s upset about something, he’s looking…” She gestured behind the door. “I think he’d appreciate some help? If you’re not busy-“

                “Oh, no, it’s okay!”

                “No, we’re not busy.”

                “Don’t worry, Granny! We’re on the-” Noie jumped off the bunk bed, landed weirdly, and faceplanted into the carpet. “Case. Ow.”

                “You okay?”

                “Only thing hurt is my pride, bro.” She shot up. “Alright, let’s find that ring!”

                Allie laughed. “You kids. Made of rubber, aren’t you?”

* * *

 

                It was the weekend, and the school parking lot was empty but for a couple cars parked under a sunroof. At the curb on the other end of the clearing, a red car was idling.

                “Now, Naomi, you’re in first gear.” David pressed a hand to the steering wheel; his wedding ring glinted on his finger. “What you want to do is lift the clutch and press down on the accelerator. Do it slowly. You’ll probably stall at first, but-”

                The car shut off. Lights blinked on the display.

                “Okay, that’s stalling. You stalled. Try again.”

                Noie made a face as she put the brake back on. “This is complicated.”

                “All it takes is practice, kid. Try again.”

                She tried again, and the car gave out in another anticlimactic whump. Dipper leaned forwards.

                “Maybe you should go slower?”

                “Thanks, Dipper.” She rolled her eyes. “Not like Grandpa just said that five seconds ago or anything.”

                She tried again, and the car stalled once more. “Aargh! I thought I had it!”

                “Don’t get frustrated, kid. Takes time to get the hang of it.”

                “Are you sure you’re doing it slowly enough? Maybe you should-“

                Noie turned around in her seat and glared at Dipper. “Okay, right now you are not being as helpful as you think you are. Can you not?”

                “Ignore him.” David turned her head back to the front. “He takes after Allie. They’re both dreadful backseat drivers.”

                “Wha-! I am not!”

                “You are.” Allie grinned and touched his shoulder. “But hey, don’t worry! Once you get a license, you don’t have to put up with anybody else’s bad driving! That’s what I do!”

                David turned the key. “Try again.”

                She tried again, and the car gave an awful grinding sound before it cut off. Noie tensed up.

                “Oh, no, I broke it!”

                “You didn’t break it. Try again.”

                “You need to go really slowly on the clutch.” Allie said. “Are you doing that? Are you going slow?”

                “I’m trying, Granny. Yup, I’m trying aaaand I’m failing.”

                David heaved a sigh. “Dipper, can you take Allie and wait out on the curb? Naomi needs to focus.”

                “I’m _trying_.”

                “I know you are. Try again.”

                Dipper and Allie stepped out, and it was just the two of them. Noie frowned. She pressed the clutch and the break down, and waited for David to start the car. It roared to life; she gripped the steering wheel a little tighter, and watched him shift the car.

                “Alright.” David said. “You’re good to go.”

                She breathed in, and out, and tried again. Up with the clutch, down with the accelerator…

                The car lurched forward. Noie sucked in a breath, but then it hit her – the car was moving!

                “I did it! Grandpa, I-“

                “Hey, hey, eyes on the road!”

                Noie jumped and slammed the breaks. The car died.

                “Wha-“ She frowned. “Aw, man, I stalled again!”

                “Yeah, there’s a way to break that doesn’t do that. But hey,” David looked at her, and there was a rare smile creasing his face. “You did it, kid. You got’er going.”

                Noie beamed. “I did. I did!”

                He ruffled her hair. “You’ll be on the road in no time. Dear god, that’s a terrifying thought.”

                “Hey!”

                They both chuckled at that. David reached over and pressed down the handbrake.

                “So,” he said. “You wanna try this again, or do you wanna let your brother have a go?”

                “Eh, I’ll let Dipper try it. I can sit in the back and tell him everything he’s doing wrong!”

                David shook his head. “No, you’re outside with Allie. Make sure she’s safe, okay? Doesn’t go wandering; she’s started doing that lately.”

                “Yeah, yeah, don’t worry, Grandpa.”

                She laughed again, but he fixed her with a stare. “I’m serious.”

                “I know. Don’t worry, I have got her.”

                “Alright.” He grunted, after a moment. “Off you go.”

                Noie closed the door and skipped over to Dipper and Allie. Dipper raised his hand in a high-five, a huge grin on his face.

                “You did it!”

                She slapped his hand as hard as she could. “I _did_ it!”

                “Ow…”

                “I mean, sure I stalled literally right after, but I did it! I did the drive!” Noie grinned at him. “Now it’s your turn. Remember to release the clutch reaaaally slowly, okay.”

                “Yeah, yeah.”

                “No, I mean reaaaaally slowly. Have you got it yet? Like, reaaaaally slowly-“

                He waved her off. “Alright, alright. You’re very funny.”

                “Oh, I’m hilarious! Good luck!”

                He jogged up to the car. Allie started to follow, and Noie touched her shoulder.

                “No, no, Granny, they’re not going anywhere. Dipper’s learning how to drive.”

                “He is?” She blinked. “Why, isn’t he a little young?”

                “Ehh, maybe technically? But we’re in a parking lot, right? Grandpa says you don’t need a license here.”

                “Hmm.” Allie frowned. “It- he still seems a little… little young.”

                Noie shrugged. Then: “Hey, Granny. Guess what?”

                “What is it?”

                “I'm learning how to drive too, and I started the car!”

                “Did you?” She grinned. “Oh, that’s very good. Stick… the one with the stick, right?”

                “Yeah!”

                “Oh, that’s very good. That’s very hard. Not many people know how to do that these days.”

                As Noie watched, the car started up again.

                Allie frowned. “What’s David doing? Where’s he going?”

                “No, Granny, he’s not going anywhere. He’s teaching Dipper how to drive.”

                “Oh, he is, is he. Dipper’s driving already?”

                “Yup. Grandpa’s teaching him.”

                “David’s teaching him?” She snorted. “Why’s he passing that off on David, huh?”

                “What?”

                “Why’s David teaching him how to drive? Where’s your father?”

                Noie stiffened at that. A cold pit dropped in her stomach, and the smile fell right off her face. “Uh… not here… I guess?”

                “Yeah, I can see he’s not here. Why’s he pawning this off on David? He should be here.”

                “Yeah, I… guess he should.” She stared down at her feet. “I guess he should.”

                The car revved. Noie looked up to see it start moving, cruising smoothly along the curb. Her jaw dropped.

                “Whaaat? How’d Dipper get it so fast? Ohmygosh, that is so not fair!”

                “David?” Allie stepped forwards. “Where’s he going?”

                “He’s just teaching Dipper how to drive, Granny.” She crossed her arms. “I can’t believe it. Wait, he’s turning too?! No way. That is not fair.”

                “Dipper’s learning how to drive? Already?”

                Noie opened her mouth to respond, but at that moment she felt a tug on the back of her shirt. Confused, she turned around, and became even more confused at the sight of a tiny figure – they barely came up to her waist - in a dirty red cloak standing behind her, the hood pulled over their head. They seemed to have come out of nowhere; Noie hadn’t heard a sound until they took a deep, rasping breath, and spoke.

                “What exactly,” the figure hissed, in a voice that sounded strangely like a young girl’s, “is he doing here, that’s so _fucking important_ he doesn’t have a moment to come and see me?”

                Noie was completely blindsided – by the figure’s appearance, the voice, the anger, the language… she just stared, at a loss for words.

                “I’ve just trekked across almost the entire length of the United States – being chased, mind you! I haven’t had a second to rest, I haven’t had anything to feed on for weeks, and when I ask Alcor for help, he tells me to go to _fucking Southern Arizona_ – of all places! – to a city full of humans when I’m in this condition, and find him! Yeah, I did that. I was like, oh no, he’s in trouble, he needs my help! But I get here, and what’s he doing?” She stabbed a finger at the car in the parking lot. “ _Fucking driving_!? He’d better be enslaved or something, because I am going to kill him if this is anything less than an emergency!”

                Noie stepped back. “What?” She managed. “Dipper?”

                “Dipper. What are you, some sort of Mizar?” The figure glared up at her, and Noie caught her breath at the glowing red eyes underneath the cloak. “You don’t look like you recognize me. Oh, well, _of course_ he hasn’t remembered to tell you about, me since apparently he hasn’t remembered me at all!” She rolled those menacing eyes. “Whatever. Go get him, I’m gonna kick his ass.”

                Noie’s legs wouldn’t move. Her mouth wouldn’t work. Her mind was racing a mile a minute – Vampire? Mizar? Enslaved? Alcor? What was going on?

                At that moment, Allie stepped forwards. Noie could only watch as she put a hand on the vampire’s shoulder.

                “Hey,” Allie said, carefully. “You haven’t had anything to drink in a while, have you?”

                “What’s it to you, lady? Who are you?”

                “I’m Allie. It’s okay. Let’s go stand in the… the dark, no sunlight.” She gestured to the shade by the building. “Over there. That’d be more comfortable, wouldn’t it? What’s your name?”

                “Lucy Ann.” The vampire stood firm as Allie tried to lead her out of the light. “Look, you’re very nice, but I don’t need your help. I need Alcor.”

                “Okay. We can go get Alcor in a second. There’s a hospital not far from here – they’ve got bloodpacks for just this occasion. Maybe your friend can meet you there?” Allie fumbled in her pockets. “I need... where’s my… Noie?”

                “Yes?” Noie squeaked.

                “Do you know where my… button, calling thing is? Can you ask David?” She looked around. “Where is he?”

                At that moment, the car pulled up by the curb. Lucy Ann shook off Allie’s hand and stalked over just as the door opened.

                “Noie?” David furrowed his brows. “What’s going on? Who’s your little friend?”

                “ _You_!” Lucy Ann stabbed a finger at Dipper, who immediately took a step back, his face turning sheet white. “What’s your problem, man? I came all the way across the country 'cause I thought you were in trouble, but here you are just driving a car around like you’re some sort of human! You’d better have a fucking good explanation for this!”

                She grabbed him by the scruff of his neck and jerked him down to her level. Like lightning, David shot around the side of the car. He tried to pull her away.

                “Get away from my grandson!”

                “Grandson? What are you talking about? Alcor, what’s he talking about?”

                “His name’s not Alcor, he doesn’t know you, and I’m calling the police if you don’t get off him right this second! Get off!”

                “Alcor, what’s-“

                “Get _off_!”

                David wrenched her hand away. She staggered back and sat down hard. Dipper winced, and seemed to break out of his trance; he put a hand over the side of his neck.

                “Ow…” He drew his fingers back. Red glistened on them. “I think… she scratched me…”

                Noie saw the vampire go very still. She couldn’t see Lucy Ann’s face, but she could certainly see the look of pure horror that flashed across David’s; in a movement, he was in front of Dipper, his arms spread wide. The vampire rose up, clawed fists balled, and-

                Allie pulled her hood back. Sunlight hit Lucy Ann's head, and she hissed and drew back, scrabbling for her hood. Noie felt someone grab her hand.

                “Come on,” Allie pulled her towards the car. “Let’s go. David!”

                David was shoving Dipper in the backseat. “Get in the car, both of you. Get in the car right now.”

                Noie didn’t need to be told twice. Seatbelts, she dimly thought as David started the car. She put hers on, and glanced outside.

                Lucy Ann had gotten her hood on again. She was waving her arms, saying something that looked like, “Hey, wait!”

                The car peeled out of the parking lot, and soon she was out of sight. They kept driving; David kept sneaking glances at the rear view mirror, and nobody said a single word.

                It was like that for a long moment. Then, Allie piped up.

                “Where are we going?”

                “Hell if I know. Away from her.” His knuckles were white on the steering wheel. “Holy shit.”

                “David! Language.”

                Noie finally breathed, and it came with a laugh. “Wow, haha. That was crazy.”

                “You can say that again, kid.”

                “That was crazy!”

                “What was crazy? What happened, David?”

                David started speaking to Allie, and Noie turned to her brother. “That was crazy, bro-“

                She stopped, and then blinked. There was something weird with Dipper’s eyes – maybe it was a trick of the light, but they almost seemed darker. She blinked again, and frowned. No, it wasn’t. They were black, pitch black, and his irises glowed gold.

                “Dipper? Dipper!”

                Dipper blinked. Now his eyes were normal again. He frowned, and shook himself.

                “Mabel?”

                “Dipper, I’m not Mabel. I’m Noie.”

                He looked at her, frowning like he was confused. “Noie. Right.”

                “Yeah.” She reached out a hand, and grasped his shoulder. Carefully, she patted it. “Are you okay? Your eyes did a really weird thing.”

                “What?”

                “They went, like, black.” Noie frowned. “Who was that vampire? Do you know her? What’s going on?”

                Dipper looked over at David and Allie. He made a face, and then he leaned forwards.

                “Noie,” He said, his tone low and serious. “I think… I do.”

                “What do you mean? How?”

                “I don’t know how, or what it means, but… she was the girl from my dream.”

                Noie just stared. She didn’t know what to say to that.


	5. Chapter 5

                “She was a real small girl – barely came up to my waist. Looked like a six year old, but, uh, hard to tell those things for sure with vampires. She swore like a bloody sailor, so I’m assuming a fair bit older than that.”

                Noie sat on the couch. Her brother’s hand rested in her lap, and every so often she’d give it a squeeze. She looked down at the carpet, at her grandfather’s yellowed toes and sandals. At the policewoman’s shiny black boots.

                The boots shifted. “So you saw her by the school?”

                “Yes. In the parking lot.”

                “Do you know where she went?”

                “No, I’m afraid not.”

                “Okay.” Scribbling sounds. “Anything else?”

                “Uh… well, it was odd but she seemed to think she knew my grandson? Probably mistook him for someone else – she was calling him a different name, shouting some nonsense about… I don’t know. I remember she said, ‘You’d better have a good-‘ f-word ‘-explanation for this!”

                “Okay.”

                “Ugh, I’m trying to remember that name she called him.” The sandals turned to the side. “Allie, do you- oh.”

                “Do I what?”

                “Nevermind. Kids?”

                Noie looked up. David and the policewoman were staring at her, and all of a sudden she felt a little sick. She squeezed Dipper’s hand.

                “You know what name she called you, Dipper? Noie, you got any idea?”

                She opened her mouth… but no. It had completely slipped her mind. She shook her head, and turned to Dipper.

                Dipper, who had that same sheet-white expression he’d been wearing since he laid eyes on Lucy Ann in the parking lot. He seemed completely frozen, so Noie cleared her throat.

                “No.” She said. It was strangely hard to look them in the eyes, so she stared at their feet instead. “We don’t remember.”

                “Don’t worry about it.” The boots straightened. There was a click as the notes closed. “We’ve got more than enough information already to put out an alert. I’ll relay this to our officers, so they know what to keep an eye out for when they’re out on patrol.”

                “Alright, that’s great. Thank you so much.”

                “No problem, sir. And if you see anything else, remember to give us a call.”

                “We will, we will. Thank you again.”

                The boots turned and walked to the door. Creak, slam. Silence.

                A sigh.

                “Jeez.” The sandals shuffled in place. “This was a weird day. I’m gonna go watch something stupid on TV until everything stops feeling like a reality show.”

                The sandals stepped back, paused, and then walked forwards. Noie felt a hand on her shoulder.

                “Hey,” David said. The corner of his lip crinkled back in a grimace. “You two both look terrible. Go and get yourselves an early night, alright?”

                Noie felt herself nodding.

                “Okay. Good.” Her grandfather gave her an awkward pat. “That’ll, uh, make you feel better. Glad… glad you’re okay.”

                With that, he stepped back and cleared his throat. “Alright. Come on, Allie.”

                “Where are we going?”

                “To the living room. Come on, I’ll put on _Embassy Under the Sea_.”

                “Oh, I remember that.” Allie nodded as he led her down the hall. “Very good docudentistry on the, uh, Atlantis. Who’s the man who does the voice again? Very charming, I could listen to him for on and on and on.”

                David said something, but Noie had stopped listening. She’d felt a squeeze on her hand.

                “Hey.” Dipper started. “Um… ”

                He trailed off. A million words seemed to flit across his tongue; after a long moment, he cleared his throat and chose a few.

                “Weird day, huh?”

                Noie lifted her lips. “Yeah. The weirdest.”

                They didn’t say anything for a while. Noie leaned forwards and stared out of the window, at the sunlight shining down on the patio. She snorted, and Dipper looked at her.

                “What?”

                “Grandpa’s crazy if he thinks I’m going to bed this early.”

                “Oh, haha, yeah.”

                “I mean, vampire or no vampire, I don’t hit the hay if the sun’s still shining... ray!”

                “Hah. That rhymes.” He raised an eyebrow. “Though, wouldn’t it technically be ‘rays’?”

                “Shaddup. You’re crushing my little poet dreams.”

                “You want to be a poet?”

                “No, but if I did those dream’s’d be real crushed by now.”

                The two of them laughed at that, though Noie didn’t think she’d made much of a joke. She could feel Dipper ‘s eyes on her; it felt like he was watching her in a way she wasn’t quite used to, and didn’t quite like. It made her trail off. It made her look away again, for some other distraction.

                There was a glass apple on the table. Noie picked it up and mimed taking a bite.

                “Haha.” Dipper said. “That’s funny.”

                She him a look, and he frowned.

                “What?”

                “Ha-ha. That-is-fun-ny. I-am-Dip-per. I-am-a-ro-bot.”

                Dipper sighed. “Sorry. I guess I’m tired.”

                “Just tired, huh?”

                “Well, yeah. With the whole vampire thing.”

                Noie gripped the apple until her knuckles turned white. “If you say so.”

                “If I- what?” She wasn’t looking at him, but she could feel the couch shift as he scooted closer. “Noie, what’s wrong?”

                She looked down at his feet. Black sneakers. White socks that had gone a bit grey – he should get new ones sometime.

                “Noie? Are you mad at me?”

                Noie gritted her teeth. “You didn’t tell the police lady about your dream.”

                There was a tension in her voice; she’d tried to keep it out, but it wound around her words nonetheless. Dipper seemed to freeze.

                “What?” He shifted his foot. “I didn’t-“

                “We were just all here, laying out the story for her, and you know, you could have said something at any time. Aannnnyyyy time.” Noie could hear herself getting louder. She paused, took a breath, and continued. “But, you know, let’s just keep that a secret. Yeah. No big deal.”

                Dipper spluttered. “Wha-? I’m not keeping secrets, I- I don’t know what’s going on! I don’t know who that vampire was! I-“

                “But you do! You said you knew who she was-“

                “No, I said I saw her in my dream. She looked really familiar, but I don’t know who she is, or what any of that stuff she said to me means.”

                “Cool. That’s good to know.” Noie scowled at his shoes. “So why didn’t you say that to the lady?”

                Dipper didn’t say anything. After a long moment, there was a hand on her shoulder.

                “Noie?”

                Noie glanced up at him. He was looking at her with those big old worried eyes – she could see some hurt mixed in there, as well. Great. She was being a jerk, wasn’t she. With a sigh, she turned away again.

                “Look… Dipper, I don’t think you’re lying or anything.” Noie hesitated. “I just, I don’t know what’s going on, and you’re acting weird. In the car, you said you knew who the vampire lady was… and then you didn’t say a word until just now. You were all zoned out.”

                “Yeah,” Dipper squeezed her shoulder. “I was thinking. I’m trying to figure out what’s going on too.”

                “I know. You do that, you get all quiet.” She cracked a smile. “Then ten minutes later you’re all, ‘Aha! I know who ate the last brownie in the fridge!’ You never believe me when I tell you it’s Grandpa.”

                Dipper didn’t seem to be listening. He was staring off into space again.

                “Dipper?”

                “It just doesn’t make sense.” He said, almost to himself. “It can’t be a case of mistaken identity, because I saw her in my dream. But she called me Alcor; if she knew who I was, why doesn’t she know my name?”

                “Seriously?” Noie rolled her eyes. “Grandpa point-blank asked us if we knew what name she was calling you, and you didn’t say nothing about an Alcor.”

                Dipper waved her off. “One second, Noie. Alcor… Alcor… I know that name. Where do I know it from?”

                “It sounds sorta familiar to me too. Weird.”

                “Wait… I know!”

                He shot off the couch and dashed for the bedroom. Noie blinked.

                “Dipper? Where are you going?” She stood up. “Wait for me!”

                Noie ran after him. He was under their beds, his legs sticking out the side as he rooted around for something. She nudged his foot.

                “Whatcha looking for, bro?”

                Paper rustled. “Aha!”

                “Aha?”

                He wiggled his way out, clutching the edge of a poster. Noie raised her eyebrows at the outline of the old state of Californa she’d traced in sharpie.

                “What’s the poster for?”

                “It’s on the Califonia Incident!” Dipper stabbed a finger at the paper. “Who caused the California Incident, Noie?”

                “Iunno.”

                “What- you don’t remember?”

                “Hey, no test, right? I don’t need to remember!”

                Dipper’s eyebrows drooped. “That’s not a great attitude… nevermind. All you need to know is, Alcor the Dreambender caused the California Incident. That has to be the Alcor she was talking about.”

                “Okay… so why’s she calling you that, then?”

                “That’s-!” He raised a finger, and then curled it back. “A good question.”

                He looked down at the poster, now chewing a pen he’d picked up from somewhere. Noie rolled her eyes.

                “So, wait, she thinks you’re the guy or girl or whatever who blew up California?”

                “Alcor’s a demon, Noie.”

                “Demon?” Noie snorted. “Well, now I’m even more confused. She thinks you’re a demon? How’d she end up thinking that?”

                Dipper just shrugged. He kept chewing on the pen, his brow furrowed in thought. Noie walked over, bent down, and took it from him.

                “Chew on your own pens.” She said, and tried for a grin. “You were spitting out glitter for weeks the last time you ate one of mine.”

                “Hmm? Oh, okay…” Dipper trailed off. He sighed. “There’s just… there’s got to be an explanation for this. I’m missing something. I’ve gotta… I’ve gotta think. Think, Dipper.”

                Noie watched him for a moment, her smile fading. She nudged him.

                “Hey, bro. You know, uh, you don’t have to go all Sherlock Holmes on this. This whole thing is super weird; we should just tell the police about the Alcor thing, and let them figure it out.” She shrugged. “They’re pros, they’ll do their thing, and we can stop stressing about it. Right?”

                Dipper didn’t respond. She nudged him a bit harder.

                “Riiiight?”

                “Noie, one second.” He frowned a little harder. “So she thinks I’m Alcor. Why would she think that? I’m not, unless…”

                “Unless what?”

                Abruptly, he turned to her. “In the car, you said my eyes did a weird thing?”

                There was an edge to his voice. Noie shrugged at him. “I mean, they looked a little dark for a second, I don’t know.”

                “Dark how?”

                “Almost like they were kind of black? With little glowy bits…” She saw the colour leave Dipper’s face and quickly added, “Which is ridiculous! I was probably just not seeing it right- you know, I did just get chased by a vampire, so maybe I was just- Dipper? Where are you going now?”

                Dipper walked over to the front door and knelt down by the baseboard.

                “What are you doing?”

                “The wards are still blue.” Dipper said. His voice was a little shaky. “B-but it happened outside the house, so that doesn’t- that doesn’t prove anything.”

                “Prove what?” Noie reached out a hand but he backed away. “Dipper! You’re being weird again; what are you talking about?”

                Dipper clenched his fists. “I think… I think I know why she thought I was Alcor. What if… what if I was? What if somehow I got possessed, and-”

                “Possessed?” She made a face. “Dude… no. I’m sure that’s not what happened.”

                “Why not? It’s the only explanation that makes sense, Noie!”

                “I mean, it’s not the _only_ explanation; the vampire lady could’ve just been nuts. Right? Dipper-“

                “But that doesn’t explain how I saw her in my dream! Or what happened in the car with my eyes!” He backed away, gripping his hair. “This is really serious, Noie! What do we do?”

                “You’re not possessed, dude. Stop. You’re just freaking yourself out.”

                “What makes you so sure?”

                “Well… you’re not.” She struggled for words. “Look, don’t you have to, like, make a deal or something? You pass out around magic, Dipper. I don’t know when that would have happened.”

                “It could have happened a long time ago. What if-“ He paused, and lowered his voice. “What if this has something to do with what happened to Dad?”

                Noie froze up. She could see Dipper hesitate; he looked down at the floor, seeming to second-guess his words for a moment before nodding to himself.

                “That makes sense. I mean, I’m not saying that’s what happened, but that’s possible, right? I mean, when else would we have come into contact with a demon-”

                “Stop.”

                Dipper’s mouth clamped shut. He stared at Noie, and suddenly she realsed she didn’t know what to say. She sighed. She took a step forward, and wrapped Dipper in a hug.

                He tensed up. “Noie-“

                “I don’t wanna hear your crackpot theories about Dad.” She squeezed him tighter. “You’re freaking yourself out… and you’re freaking me out, too.”

                Slowly, he put his arms around her. Noie continued.

                “Look, something weird’s definitely going on, but can we not get super carried away? Maybe there’s something else that makes sense, that’s not demons. I dunno.”

                “You still think I should tell the police?”

                “About the Alcor thing? No, no, that is- that is getting carried away.” She laughed nervously. “Let’s not, um, tell anyone about the demon theory, alright? I dunno what would happen to you.”

                “Okay…”

                “We don’t need’em anyway.” She pulled back from the hug to smile at him. “We can figure it out, just the two of us. Right? Mystery Twins?”

                Dipper raised an eyebrow. “You didn’t seem to like that name last time I used it.”

                “We didn’t have a mystery then. We’ve got a mystery now, haven’t we?”

                “That’s true.” He smiled back. “Alright. Mystery Twins.”

                “Yeah!”

                Dipper’s smile faded. “But Noie, if I am right, and I did get… possessed, at some point-“

                “Ah, ah, big if there!”

                “But _if_ that’s what’s happening, what do we do? I mean, we probably should go to the police at that time, right?”

                Noie hesitated. She tried for a shrug. “I mean, yeah, maybe? I dunno, we’ll cross that bridge when we get to it, bro.” With that, she gave a big yawn. “Wow, you know what? I actually am kind of tired. Crazy, huh? Let’s talk about this more in the morning.”

                She turned and headed to their bedroom. Dipper was still standing by the door; she glanced back at him.

                “You coming, bro?”

 

* * *

 

                Bed slats above her. A stiff mattress against her back. Blankets that didn’t quite cover her side, being hogged by a warm body sleeping soundly beside her.

                Noie was getting a little too old to sleep on her brother’s bed. She shifted and turned her head towards the clock on the desk.

                Nine o’clock. Sheesh, this was still so early.

                Next to her, Dipper made a sighing noise and turned over, bringing even more of the blanket over to his side. Greedy, Noie thought, and rolled her eyes. She tried tugging at them, but it was no use.

                She stared up at the top bunk again, at the mattress poking out from behind the bed slats. It was all grey and fuzzy and dark; she closed her eyes and tried to sleep, but somehow she’d always end up opening them again, staring up at the slats again.

                This was boring. Noie frowned. She reached down to the floor, and picked up her phone. Making sure it was angled away from Dipper, she turned it on.

                Bright light flooded her vision. She squinted until it was less overwhelming, and then tapped in her password.

                She opened a browser, and hesitated. Glanced at Dipper; she couldn’t see him in the darkness anymore, but she could hear his steady, slow breathing. He was still asleep.

                Good.

                Noie turned back to her phone, and typed in, ‘Alcor the Dreambender’.

                The first thing that popped up was a Wikipedia page; against the advice of all her school teachers, she decided to look there first. It opened onto a picture of a symbol: a golden, winged star sheltering a smaller star beneath it.

                Scrolling down, Noie found the article. She began to read.

_Alcor the Dreambender, the Twin Star, the Forgotten One (full list of titles here) is an elite dream demon known for his unusually strong connection to the physical world. Coming into prominence shortly after the Transcendence, Alcor’s strange personality and relationship to Mizar make him an outlier among demons, and have been a major subject of study to demonologists the world over._

                Mizar. Noie remembered the vampire calling her that this morning. Her frown deepening, she clicked on the link. It led her to another article, this time with a photo. It was of an older woman with a bright sweater and a wide smile.

                Underneath was a caption: _Mabel Pines is known as the first confirmed reincarnation of Mizar._

                At that, Noie sat up in bed. Her eyes were wide. Her breath caught in her throat, and she clicked on another link.

                Another article, this time with the same picture. She scrolled down.

_Mabel Pines (1999-2116), also known as Mizar, was an influential figure during and in the immediate aftermath of the Transcendence. She and her brother Dipper Pines-_

                Wait, Dipper? Yes, that's what it said.

                “What the hell…” Noie whispered under her breath. She shot another glance at her brother again. He was still sleeping soundly, the blankets wrapped three times around him like a little cocoon. So normal, and yet…

                She hesitated, and then turned off the phone. Tossed it back onto the floor. Lay back down, and tried to close her eyes.

                Noie stared up at the slats for the rest of the night.


	6. Chapter 6

                Eggs. Milk. Salt and pepper. Bowl. Wooden spoon.

                Crack. Pour. Mix. Salt: shake shake shake.

                Stovetop: click click click _fwoom_.

                Little blue flames licked at the burner plate, and Noie turned them down a little. She jiggled the saucepan, letting the oil slide around and coat the base, then set it on the heat. It simmered there for a second as she reached for the bowl.

                She poured the mixture. Goopy yellow liquid filled the pan. Noie picked up the spoon, poked at a few spots where the egg white hadn’t quite mixed in, and then began to stir.

                Stir, stir, stir. It was quiet but for the steady wheeze of the gas cooker. Early morning light streamed onto the table, illuminating dust particles in the air. It was warm. Noie stepped back a little, and kept stirring.

                A few soft lumps turned up in the egg as it began to scramble. Behind her, she heard a door creak open.

                There were footsteps, coming down the hall, and then:

                “Noie?”

                Noie glanced over, and grinned at her brother. “Morning, Dipping Sauce!”

                “Morning,” He rubbed his eyes. “How long have you been up?”

                “Hmm, do you mean ‘up’ as in awake, or ‘up’ as in not being in bed-“

                “You do know it’s Monday, right?”

                Noie snorted. “Yup. School’s gonna be hell.”

                To that, Dipper didn’t say anything. She watched him walk around the counter and sit down across from the stove. The eggs were sizzling as they scrambled; she turned off the heat.

                “Dipper?”

                He glanced up at her, and back down again. She knew that squirrelly expression on his face; he had something he wanted to ask her.

                “Dude.” She said. “What’s up with you?”

                “Um-“

                “You gonna spill, or have I gotta keep bugging you about it? Dipper? Dipper? Dip-“

                “No, no, that’s not- that’s not necessary.” He cleared his throat. “I’m just thinking of how to… well, this might sound a little excessive, but hear me out, okay?”

                Noie tipped the scrambled egg onto a plate. “I’m all ears.”

                “Okay, so-“

                “Want some of this?”

                “Huh? Oh, yeah. Thanks.”

                She turned around. “I’ll getcha a plate.”

                “Um, Noie, wait..."

                “Don’t worry! I’m still listening!” Plates clattered in the cupboard. “Oh, darn it! We’re out of small plates. Welp, you can be a weirdo and eat eggs in a bowl.”

                “I don’t think I should go to school.”

                Noie blinked. She looked back at her brother. “Come again?”

                Dipper was gripping the edge of the counter. “I said, I don’t think I should go to school.”

                “Heh. You and me both, bro!”

                “No, no, I mean… I was doing some thinking last night-“

                “That’s dangerous.” Dipper shot her a look, and she cleared her throat. “Sorry. Keep going.”

                “Anyway, I was doing some thinking last night… about the whole, you know, demon thing?” He sighed. “I know you don’t think it could be that – and maybe it isn’t! – but what if it is? What if it is and I go to school anyway and something happens and-“

                “Whoa, whoa!” Noie held her hands up. “Slow down, Dipper. You can’t just not go to school.”

                “But I can’t just go like nothing’s wrong!”

                She rolled her eyes. “Nothing _is_ wrong. Look, there could be a hundred reasons for the vampire thing. Didn’t we say we were gonna think this whole thing over before we did anything crazy?”

                He didn’t look entirely convinced. “I started reading up on vampires, but-“

                “That’s good!” She leaned forwards. “You know who I bet has lots of stuff about vampires? Granny.”

                “Um, you know she’s-”

                “Her books, Dipper. I was talking about her books. She’s got _tons_  of ones about supernatural creatures in the old study.”

                Dipper blinked. “I didn’t think about that. Do you think… are we allowed to take them?”

                “Eh.” Noie shrugged as she picked up her plate. “You could ask, but I don’t think they’d notice if you borrowed a couple.”

                “I guess.”

                “Then we’re good!” She skipped around the counter and swung an arm around him. “No school skipping needed! Though, I gotta say, I like that idea. Concept is great. Execution is… I dunno, what were you planning to do, write ‘please excuse, I’m possessed’ on all your homework?”

                Dipper snorted. “I guess I wasn’t thinking too much about that bit.”

                “No, it’s not that you weren’t thinking, it’s that you’re thinking too much!” She ruffled his hair. “I can’t keep up with your crazy ideas, bro. Now eat your eggs - they’re gonna go cold.”

                She sat down on a chair and quickly tucked in. Dipper didn’t say anything else; he looked deep in thought, his grin fading from his face, his hands starting to grip the edge of the counter again.

                Noie tapped his shoulder. “Dipper?”

                “Yeah?”

                She hesitated, and then pointed her fork at his bowl. “Are you gonna eat that?”

 

* * *

 

                “Hey Dipper, what do you think that is?” Noie gave her brother a nudge. “Dipper.”

                He looked up from his book. “Hm?”

                “Look at that!” She pointed at something stuck to the bus seat in front of them. “Do you think that’s alive?”

                “Uhh… it could be gum.”

                “That’s the hairiest piece of gum I’ve ever seen in my life. Like, you could pet that piece of- _oh my god I just had the greatest idea_.”

                Dipper stuffed his nose back into the pages. “Nope. I’m not touching it.”

                “What? Come onnn!”

                “No way.”

                “Why not?”

                “Because it’s gross. Why don’t you touch it if you want to do that so bad?”

                “Aww, but making you do stuff is the whole point! It wouldn’t be fun otherwise.”

                Dipper snorted. His eyes moved along a sentence, and slowly his smile faded.

                “It says here that some vampires have limited dream abilities.”

                Noie cocked her head. “Wassat mean?”

                “They can project themselves into dreams; that could’ve been what happened with mine.” He made a face. “But… that wouldn’t explain _why_ she picked me. No, it doesn’t fit.”

                Noie took one look at the deep frown creasing his face, and then leaned forwards and touched the gum. She giggled.

                “It’s so fluffy.”

                “What’s- oh, Noie, gross.”

                “Hehe, it doesn’t feel like gum.”

                “That’s disgusting. You should wash your hands once we- Noie. Noie, what are you doing?”

                “Hehehe…”

                She reached her hands out to Dipper. He scooted away. “Noie, don’t you dare! Don’t touch me with that, Noie- Noie! Noie!”

                A few minutes later they walked off the bus, Noie still giggling away while Dipper was rubbing at his face.

                “Ugh, Noie. I need to find a sink.”

                “You’re welcome!”

                They walked down the street, and turned into the school’s parking lot. Noie noticed a couple police cars parked along the curb; she didn’t have to look at Dipper to know he had seen them too.

                “Huh,” he said. “I guess they’re, uh, keeping an eye out for the vampire.”

                Noie just nodded. There was a pair standing guard by the road, who gave them a friendly wave as they passed. She waved back, but something made her reach over and grasp her brother’s hand. He squeezed back.

                “There sure are a lot of them,” Dipper added in an undertone. “I didn’t think one vampire would… you know.”

                “Yeah. Weird.”

                They were rounding the curb to the school gates; the principal was there, leaning on an open cruiser door and talking to the policewoman inside. There were other students walking into school, but they were eerily quiet. Noie could see their faces as they stepped out of their cars – that quick glance around, that hesitation before they started forwards.

                It was strange. It only got stranger as they came around the corner and saw the… the figure guarding the school gates.

                It was hard to describe, because it was hard to look at. Its body burned brighter than the sun; it was wearing some kind of knight’s armour, but just the skin that peeked through the chinks was enough to make Noie’s eyes hurt. It stood a full head and shoulders above the two officers that flanked it, and its fingers were steepled over the hilt of a sword that dwarfed her in size.

                Noie stopped dead. What the hell was that thing? Was it safe?

                The officers ushered her forwards. She hesitated a moment longer, and then started towards them. Dipper lagged behind; squeezing his hand, she pulled him along.

                Through the gates they went. She stared up at its great helmet, and shivered at how it seemed to meet her gaze; how an awareness, a  _presence_ , seemed to fix its attention on her. It felt like there was something ancient pressing up against her mind, examining her thoughts, her feelings, her fears, picking her apart with chilling ease - and a split second later it was done with her, its presence there and gone so fast Noie wasn't sure if it had been there at all. She blinked, shook herself, then put her head down and hurried past it as quickly as possible.

                A murmur came from the police officers: “...don't interact with the students, please. You're not allowed.”

                Once they were past, Noie glanced back. The _thing_  hadn't moved from its position, standing still as a statue and towering over the gates it was guarding. ‘Not allowed’… she’d never heard emptier words.

                “Weird.” She shivered as she turned her head back to the front. “What _was_ that thing? Super creepy… and super overkill for a vampire, I think. Did you see the size of that sword, Dipper? Dip-“

                His eyes. They were doing that _thing_ again, and as she stared, he spoke.

                His voice. It was… different, somehow.

                “I don’t like that thing.” He said, and she didn’t know why his voice sent shivers down her spine. “It was staring at me.”

                His eyes really were glowing gold. She watched them narrow, felt his fingers tighten around her wrist.

                “Staring at _m̢e͟_ , Staring right at my… I don’t know.”

                They kept walking.  Into the building Noie went, hand in hand with a demon.

                Her mind was going a mile a minute even as she tried to keep calm, tried to keep her pace steady and tried to keep her hand in his grip even as she longed to tear it out and _run – no don’t run don’t make a scene it’ll go back to normal he’ll go back to normal in a second like last time-_

                “Mabel?”

_That name again, and now he’s staring at her with those eyes maybe she needs to say something-_

                “I mean Noie. Noie.” A blink, and the gold was gone – the brown was back. Dipper’s eyes fixed on her, and her sigh of relief was cut short as she saw the worry in them.

                “You okay, Noie?”

                “Huh?” Noie pretended to come out of a daydream. She looked over at him and stretched a smile. “What’s that? Oh, I’m okay. I’m good. I’m _guud_.”

                Dipper squeezed her hand. She squeezed back, and then pulled away. He frowned.

                “Are you sure?”

                “Yeah, yeah, no, don’t worry about me. Just, uh… hey look, bathroom!” She nudged him. “I’m gonna go wash my hands. Touched a gross thing on the bus, germs are bad, be riiight back.”

                “Oh, yeah. Then you touched me with it.”

                She walked backwards, calling out, “You’re welcome!”

                “That was not a thank you. Now I gotta wash my face.”

                “You’re welcome, for the reminder!”

                He chuckled, and that was the last thing Noie saw before she pushed the bathroom door open and stepped inside. The pit in her stomach finally dropped, and her smile fell right off her face. She clasped a hand to her chest – she could still feel her heart pounding away.

                Noie looked in the mirror, and her own brown eyes stared back at her, wide and baggy and full of burning questions.

                What on earth was happening to Dipper? What on _earth_ was she going to do? _What was she going to tell him?_

                She breathed in, and she breathed out. Her heartbeat was still racing, but she couldn’t hear it thumping in her ears anymore. She breathed in again, and let it out with a sigh.

                …

                This was going to be a long day.


	7. Chapter 7

               Noie was surprisingly awake for the first class of the day. That didn’t mean she was listening; she sat still, she stared at the teacher, and she was absolutely lost in her thoughts.

               A tap on her shoulder made her jump.

               “Noie?” Dipper drew his hand back. “Oh, didn’t mean to scare you.”

               “What? No, no, you didn’t scare me, silly.” She poked his nose. “Boop. Whaddaya want?”

               “You know the big knight thing in front of the gates this morning? I went on Gran’s email and I found this.”

               He passed his phone over to her and sat back, rubbing his forehead. Noie raised an eyebrow at him.

               “You okay?”

               “Oh, yeah. I’ll be fine.” Dipper rolled his eyes. “Just another one of those headaches that came from nowhere. Read the thing.”

 _Came from nowhere_. Noie gave him a tight-lipped smile before turning to the phone.

               It was currently on an email page, of course. There were a couple messages from the gym, one from the ‘Argenta Grant Foundation’, but the only one that was opened was from the school, and it was titled, ‘IMPORTANT UPDATE RE: VAMPIRE ATTACK ON CAMPUS’

               Noie tapped it once, and read its contents.

_Dear parents and guardians,_

_We are writing to inform you of an update to the police investigation concerning the vampire attack that occurred on campus Saturday the 21 st. An angel crusader has joined with local authorities to assist in the capture of this perpetrator and will be stationed outside school gates until further notice. Pursuant to the 2027 Crusade Assistance Act, the school and the state authorities will be providing all reasonable accommodations to assist the angel in His mission and to ensure the safety of students._

_Please note, this angel poses NO THREAT to students on campus. He is prohibited from interacting with students or exercising force without police approval. Students belonging to supernatural populations should be advised to exercise caution, but to repeat this angel poses NO THREAT and is only here to find and apprehend the perpetrator._

_For any further questions about the angel crusader, please contact the front office. Thank you for your patience._

               Noie frowned. “Angel crusader? Is that a band name?”

               “I was just looking that up.” Dipper took his phone back. “Apparently, it’s a term for angels that come down to Earth for a specific purpose. Like, defeat this guy, or hunt down that vampire. Stuff like that.”

               “What’re angels, though? Are they like,” she mimed opening a book. “angel, angels?”

               “Biblical ones?” Dipper shrugged. “I mean, probably not, right? Demons aren’t – they’re just manifestations of chaos, and angels are the opposite of that, so-“

               “Manifi-who-ha?”

               “Manifestations.” He raised an eyebrow at her. “You don’t know what that means?”

               Noie giggled. “Nah, I do, I do. I’m just teasing ya, you big-word-using nerd.”

               “Oh, of course. You jerk.”

               “You nerd.”

               He rolled his eyes at that, but Noie could see the smile in them. She turned away from him, back to the teacher at the front, her own grin rapidly fading.

               Beneath the desk, she took out her own phone. She typed in ‘angel crusader demon’, pressed search, and went down a rabbithole for the rest of class.

 

* * *

 

               “Hey, look at that. It’s the weird girl who ate my homework.”

               Noie smirked at the guy in Dipper’s group. “Hey, look at that. It’s the lazy asshole who can’t get his homework done on time. I can call people names too.”

               His expression soured. “What is wrong with you?”

               “What’s wrong with you? You can dish it out but you can’t take it?"

               She chuckled, but there was a nudge on her shoulder. Dipper was giving her a _look_.

               “What?” Noie frowned. “He totally started it this time. And for the record, he mostly started it last time too so-”

               “Noie…”

               “Alright, alright, I’ll get outta your hair.” She backed off, shooting the table one last grin. “Well, I’d love to stay and chat with my favourite mean girls, but I got my own project to do. Seeya.”

               With that, she turned on her heel and trotted back to the other side of the classroom. Her partner, Katy, glanced up from her phone as she came over.

               “Hey,” Katy said. “You were doing the poster, right.”

               “Yeah, I did it already.”

               “Oh. Cool. Thanks.”

               She looked down again, and Noie rolled her eyes. “Nooo problem. Alright.

               She got out her own phone. After typing in her password, the first thing to come up was an article on demons and angels she’d been reading – an unpleasant surprise. She found herself reading it over again.

 _There are no two beings in the universe_ , the article read, _as diametrically opposed as the angel and the demon. Angels are the lovers – and, oftentimes, the enforcers – of order, and dislike the imperfections of the physical world. They want for nothing and cannot be summoned with offerings, but will occasionally visit to right a perceived injustice in the world. Demons, on the other hand, crave chaos, and enjoy sowing as much of it as possible. They take every chance to visit the physical world and welcome being summoned._

_Demons and angels reside in very different areas of the Mindscape and rarely encounter one another. When they do, the results are deadly. The two beings will become incredibly agitated and attempt to annihilate each another._

               Noie snorted. ‘Annihalate’, that sounded so dramatic. Ooo, annihilate, scary big word! Sounded like something her brother would use, the big nerd. Hah!

               Yeah…

               She looked over at Dipper now. He was facing away from her, hunched over a sheet of paper with his head resting on the palm of his hand. Noie watched him write for a while, watched the back of his pen quiver in the air, watched his hand twitch up and itch his nose for a second before returning to its normal position.

               Normal. All so normal. She snorted, a little at herself, a little at the absurdity of the entire situation. He wasn’t _possessed_ , for god’s sakes – just look at him!

               (Remember this morning. Remember his eyes?)

               Noie frowned. Stared down at her phone, with the dumb nerdy article half scrolled through. She closed it.

               This whole thing was ridiculous, and she was ridiculous for starting to buy into it.

 _Thump_.

               “Oh, dude! Dude, are you okay?”

               Noie’s head shot up, and she saw

on the floor

curled up

holding his head

Dipper. _Dipper_.

               Her heart _stopped_. She dashed over.

               “Dipper?” Noie knelt over him. She touched his cheek. “You okay, bro? What’s wrong?”

               He let out a low moan.

               “Is your head okay? What happened?” She locked eyes with the rune guy and hissed, “ _What did you do_?!”

               The guy put his hands up. “I didn’t do anything! I wasn’t even working on runes this time, he just dropped!”

               “What’s going on?” The teacher pushed through a gathering crowd. “What happened?”

               Noie pulled him onto her lap. “Dipper gets magic sensitivity headaches. There has to be something in the room.”

               “Alright, any students with a magi-orb or anything like that, turn them off _right now_!”

               A couple people went for their bags, but it didn’t seem to do anything. The pit in Noie’s stomach deepened as she felt him clutching at her hoodie, moaning in that quiet, desperate, awful voice – just like when he had that nightmare about the vampire. She could hold him, but she couldn’t stop it; the sense of helplessness stabbed at her like a thousand needles.

 _What the hell was going on_?

               The teacher knelt beside them. “Does he need to go to the nurse?”

               Noie nodded.

               “Okay.” He threw one of Dipper’s arms around his neck. “Help him up. Everyone else, please behave while I’m gone.”

               Dimly, she picked up his other side and helped him up to his feet. They carried him out to the hallway and across the campus, and all she could think was _this happened so fast_.

               They passed by the front office; not far in the distance were the main gates. Noie caught sight of a glowing figure standing guard by them.

               She had no way of telling, but somehow she knew it was staring at them. Staring at _him_. She felt its gaze like a cold wind on her soul, and she shivered.

               “Nearly there,” her teacher grunted. “Dipper? How’re you doing?”

               He didn’t say anything. And Noie had no way of telling, but somehow she knew

_she knew_

               exactly whose fault it was.

               The angel watched them pass, still as a statue.

 

* * *

 

               “I promise you, I am fine. Noie. Noie.”

               “Just one more blanket.” She unfurled it. “Look! It’s such a pretty colour!”

               “It’s hot pink.”

               “I know, right?!”

               “Why don’t you drink your lemsip already, Dipper?” Their grandfather crossed his arms. “That’ll make you feel better.”

               “I don’t even have a headache anymore. It’s completely gone.”

               “You have a headache?”

               “I had a headache, grandma. It’s not- _Noie I don’t need that blanket I’m already sweating_.”

               "Then drink your lemsip. It fixes everything, kid.”

               “What about this blanket?”

               “Oh, if you have a headache, you should drink some lem, some drink. Ask David for it.”

               “Dipper, what about-“

               “ _Alright,_ _alright_!” Dipper chugged the cup of lemsip, threw another blanket over his chest, and glared at the three of them. “Can you guys chill out now? Please? I don’t even have a headache anymore – I’m _fine_.”

               A short, stunned silence, broken by a chuckle. Noie looked over at her grinning grandfather.

               “You need a break, kid?”

               Dipper nodded.

               “Alright, why don’t you get some rest? I’ll check on you in an hour.”

               “Sounds good.” He settled back against the pillows. “Thanks.”

               “Don’t mention it. Holler if you need anything. C’mon, guys.”

               David took Allie’s hand and started leading her out, but Noie didn’t follow. She watched them start to leave, then leaned in close.

               “Dipper-“

               “That means you too, Naomi!”

               Noie glanced back at her grandfather. “Huh?”

               “We’re all leaving your brother alone, okay?”

               “But-“

               “Come on.”

               “It’s okay, Noie.” Her brother gave her a tired smile. “I’m fine.”

               “No, but… I need to tell you something.”

               “Right now?”

               “Well, yeah. It’s not urgent urgent, but… yeah.”

               He rubbed his eyes. “Can it wait?”

               “Looks like it can.” David put a hand on her shoulder. “Come along now, kid.”

               He led her into the hallway, and closed the door behind them. Noie frowned at that.

               “How long are we leaving him alone again?”

               “Just an hour. But you’d better not try and wake him up if he’s sleeping.” David sighed. “Kid needs it with the week he’s been having.”

               Noie looked down. After a moment, she felt a hand on her shoulder.

               “Hey, you done with homework?”

               “Huh? Oh, yeah.”

               David raised an eyebrow. “All of it?”

               “Yes, Grandpa. All of it.” A pause. “Due tomorrow.”

               “…Eh, good enough. You wanna throw on a movie or something in the back?” He shrugged. “Might help take your mind off all this.”

               Noie nodded. “That sounds nice. Yeah, that does.” She began to smirk. “So when you say ‘throw on a movie-“

               “I mean a movie from the bookshelf. If it’s some weird new show of yours I’m leaving.”

               “Aww.”

               “David,” Allie nudged him. “Don’t be such a grump, dear.”

               “Yeah! Listen to Grandma, you big ol’ grump!”

               His lip quirked up. “All I’m saying is, I’ll watch anything from the shelf. You wanna put something else on, it’s gonna be a gamble.”

               “I will take that gamble! Have you ever heard of ‘The Rainbow Adventures of-“

               “Okay, no. Something from the shelf.”

               “But-“

               “I am not watching ‘rainbow’ anything. Something from the shelf please, Naomi.”

               He crossed his arms, and Noie heaved a sigh.

               “Ugh, fiiine.”

               “And drop the attitude, too. Thank you.”

 

* * *

 

               There were ten movies on the bookshelf, and Noie was certain she’d picked the worst one. ‘ _Legend of the Shadow_ ’ was an old, old horror movie. It’d caught her eye because it was one of the films her grandfather didn’t let her choose when she was younger; now, she was starting to regret her curiosity.

               It wasn’t because it was scary; it looked like it was from pre-Transcendence times, with goopy blood effects and a hilariously dated skepticism of supernatural creatures (‘Vampires? Don’t have a cow, Brad! Those don’t exist.’) In fact, it was so corny her grandfather seemed to be watching it as a comedy – she could hear him chucking away beside her – but at that moment, Noie didn't find it funny. She couldn't.

               At that moment, all Noie could see was a demon-possessed, shadowy figure stalking through the forest. He came upon the main character, and all she could hear was the screaming.

               ‘No, no, Brad, it’s me! It’s your sister! Brad, no, no no _nooooo_!”

               Firetruck red blood splatters all over Brad’s face. Beside her, David lets out a snort.

               “I love this piece of garbage.” He sat back. “My father thought it sucked too. This bit coming up – watch, this was his favourite.”

               Noie watched. She watched the camera shove itself right into Brad’s face, right up against one inky black eye. A blink, then it was back to a normal brown. With excessively trembling hands, he wiped some blood-slime off his hands and stared at it, breathing hard. Then rather abruptly, he dropped to his knees and threw his arms up to the full moon.

               “ _I’M A MOOOONNNSSSTTTEEERRRR_!”

               David cackled and slapped his knee – the sound made Noie jump. Allie cocked her head.

               “David, are you sure this is appropriate for her?”

               “Huh? Aww, she’s fine. She picked it out!” He shoots her a grin. “How’re you liking it, kiddo?”

               Noie tries for a smile. “It’s, uh, good! It’s weird… hey, if you like weird stuff, there’s tons of new-“

               “Over my dead body am I watching Rainbow Adventure Sunshine whatever.”

               “It’s actually ‘The Rainbow Adventures of Mr McStabberson’ and it’s _hilarious_. It’s about this serial killer-“

               “Shhh.”

               Noie blinked. Then she sat back in her seat and glared at her grandfather. The couch was lumpy, the air was stuffy. On the TV, melodramatic screams fell too loud on her ears.

               “Can I check on Dipper yet?”

               “Dipper?” Allie frowned. "Is he okay?”

               “He’s just got a headache, Grandma. He’ll be okay.” She turned back to David. “Can I check on him?”

               “What time is it… it’s barely been twenty minutes, kid. Hold your horses.”

               Noie hesitates. Then she stands up.

               “I’m going to check on him.”

               "What?” David looks up at her, surprise quickly turning to a hard frown. “Oh, no you will not. What did I just say?”

               “What did _I_ just say?”

               “Naomi, I said no!” He fumbled for the remote as she walked out. “Naomi Faybelle Argenta, you get back here _right now_!”

               “What’s going on, Dav-“

               “Not the time, Allie! Naomi!”

               She darted over to the bedroom and cracked open the door before he could catch up with her. Slowly, slowly, she pushed it open, careful not to let the light beam land on the beds.

               “Dipper?” She whispered. Slow, even breathing was the only reply; he’d clearly fallen asleep already. “Dammit.”

               “ _Naomi_!”

               With an eyeroll, Noie closed the door – she had to force herself not to slam it – and heads back into the living room. David and Allie are standing there, waiting for her, one with crossed arms and a deep glower wrinking his forehead, the other wearing that increasingly ever-present look of confusion as she glanced between them. The TV, Noie noticed, had been turned off.

               “Naomi-“ David started. Noie cut him off.

               “I just wanted to check on him. It’s no big deal.”

               “But I _told_ you to leave him alone! You need to listen to me, Naomi!”

               Noie hunched her shoulders. “What, like you listen to me?”

               “Excuse me?”

               “You said you wanted to ‘take my mind’ off things or whatever, but you’re only cool doing it _your_ way with the same dumb crap _you_ like!”

               “No! I let you pick a movie out!”

               “Yeah! Again, out of ten movies  _you_ like!”

               He gave her an angry shrug. “Okay, well, I was just trying to cheer you up, kid! If you didn’t want to watch a movie then you didn’t _have_ to, so that’s on you! It is absolutely _not_ acceptable to be acting this way over something like this!”

               “It’s not just this, though!”

               “Naomi-“

               “You _never_ listen to me! You _never_ take me seriously! Why’ve you gotta always ask me if I’ve done my homework, tell me I’ve gotta look after-“ her eyes darted over to Allie. “to be responsible about serious things like I’m some sort of clueless kid? I’m almost _sixteen_ – you don’t treat Dipper this way!”

               “Well, Dipper doesn’t act this way.” He glared down at her. “If you want to get taken seriously, why don’t you start taking yourself seriously. Get serious about school. Get some sense about you.”

               “ _I do have_ \- argh!”

               She clenched her fists until they went white. All the things she wanted to tell him, all the frustrations that had built up over a long weekend… they got stuck in her throat. While she was silent, Allie tugged at his sleeve again.

               “David, you’re just upsetting her. Calm down. Breathe.”

               David looked away, and took a deep breath. He let it out, and it came with a sigh.

               “Naomi,” he started, and then he hesitated. “Look… I don’t want to be yelling at you. I want you to be happy here, I want you to feel like you’re being listened to. But I’ve just got a lot on my plate right now and I need you to listen to me too, okay? It can't be a one way street. When I tell you to leave something alone, you can’t ignore me.”

               Noie didn’t know what to say to that, so she didn’t say anything.

               “You can’t, okay? Do you understand?”

               “David.” Allie rolled her eyes. “This isn’t product, this isn’t going anywhere. Why don’t you have Leo pick her up?”

               It was stuffy in the room, and at her words it suddenly got a whole lot stuffier. You could cut the air's tension with a knife as David turned to her.

               “What?” He said. Fists clenched.

               “Just call her father.” She crossed her arms. “Why are you looking at me like that? David?”

               “That’s not, _an option_!”

               His words made Noie flinch. She tried not to show it.

               “What do you mean?”

               “You know exactly what I mean! Come on, Allie!”

               “David, I don’t-“

               “ _Leon is_ -“

               “Please don’t!” Noie raised her voice to cut him off. “Please don’t. That’s just mean – you know she doesn’t remember. And she's not going to remember this time, either.”

               Allie frowned at her. “Remember what?”

               “It’s complicated, Granny. I’m sorry.”

               “What’s complicated?”

               David shot Noie a look. “Then I have to remind her. I'm not being mean, I'm treating her like an adult because she wouldn't want anything less. Look, you wouldn't understand - why don't you go to bed?"

               “Understand what? David?”

               “You keep getting frustrated with her and it’s just mean.” Noie gave him one last defiant look, and turned on her heel. “I’m not going to bed.”

               “Naomi, you-! Ugh, okay, do what you want! Do what you want.”

               She stalked into the hallway, furiously rubbing her eyes. Her throat felt sore, and her face felt flushed from this _stupid, stuffy house_ -

               She was going outside. She needed some fresh air. She wrenched open the glass door and slammed it shut behind her, feeling the handle judder in her grip. Cool night air wrapped around her like a blanket, and she paused. Took a deep breath, and let it out.

               Her breathing got a little funny for a second. She sniffed, and pulled up a chair. Sat back in it, felt the creak. She closed her eyes, and pressed her palms to her sockets.

               “Ohhh my godddd.” She groaned. “He’s such a… Argh!”

               Noie rubbed her eyes for a moment. Then she let her arms fall, and slowly blinked them open.

               “This day. This fucking day, I swear it couldn’t get any…”

               She looked down. Locked eyes with a small, hooded girl crouched in the yard with blood and fur smeared across her mouth.

               Noie blinked. She watched Lucy Ann raise her clawed hand, and give a little wave.

               “…worse.”


	8. Chapter 8

                There was a vampire in Noie’s yard. There was a vampire waving at Noie in her yard. Lucy Ann gave her an awkward smile, and she could see fangs glinting in her mouth.

                “Uh, hey.” Lucy Ann started. “Um… fancy seeing you here.”

                A pause. Absolute silence. The vampire cleared her throat.

                “Didn’t expect you to come charging out here. Um, probably would’ve, would’ve cleaned up a bit – you know, first impressions and all that. Or second impressions, technically, since I already botched that first one. Heh, yeah...” She wiped some dried blood off of her face, and sighed. “Listen, kid, I am really sorry about Saturday; usually I’m better at managing the blood thing. I’m good now – you guys were having this rat problem, you see, and-“

                Noie jolted out of her chair. She scrambled for the door.

                “Hey, wait! I need to explain!”

                She had to get away. She had to get inside. Her fingers were inches away from the handle- then a cold grip on her wrist. Lucy Ann wrenched her back with shocking force, and held on tight when she struggled.

                “Let me go!” Noie shrieked. “Grandpa! Dip-“

                Lucy Ann slapped a hand around her mouth. Her fingers felt like ice; Noie tried to bite them, but flecks of blood and rat fur got in her mouth. She gagged and fought harder.

                “Stop shouting.” The vampire hissed right in her ear, _right by her neck_. “You’re gonna wake up the whole neighborhood. I’m not trying to hurt you, okay? I just wanna explain something.”

                Noie squeezed her eyes shut. No, no, no, this wasn’t happening, _no no no_ …

                “Kid, will you calm down for a second? I get that this is a bit of a stressful situation, but I can’t let you go if you’re gonna start screaming your head off. Take deep breaths. Imagine a beach or something… I dunno, is kicking my leg like that relaxing to you? Kinda painful, but y’know, whatever works.”

                Noie stopped trying to stomp on her knee and threw her weight forwards again. Even though Lucy Ann was half her size, it did nothing; she didn’t even budge. The initial panic was turning into a sinking despair as she realised _nothing_ was working, _nothing_ was going to get her out of this… she slumped down. The vampire held her up effortlessly.

                “You done?”

                Lucy Ann’s hand crept away from her mouth, and she could reply. She sucked in a breath – she could feel the hand freeze at that, ready to muffle her scream again – then let it out in a sigh, and nodded.

                “Alright, good. I won’t take long, I promise. I just want to tell you why I need your brother’s help.”

                “Help?” Noie frowned in helpless confusion. “You have to be looking for someone else. Dipper’s in _high school_ , he can’t-“

                “’Dipper’ is the human disguise of Alcor the Dreambender.”

                “No, he’s not! He’s not possessed, he’s-“

                “I’m not saying he’s possessed, I’m saying he _is_ Alcor the Dreambender. He’s made a body for himself, wiped his own memories, and he’s playing human for a bit. He does that sometimes.”

                _W_ _hat?_

                Noie froze in place. Her mouth hung open, but she couldn’t think of anything to say. She was still processing what she’d heard, that _he is Alcor, he’s playing human_ … she didn't understand. That didn’t make any sense, she must have heard it wrong.

                In the dead silence that followed, she could hear Lucy Ann sigh. “Look, he’s clearly got a nice life going on with you guys, so I’m real sorry to be barging in like this. I wouldn’t if I didn’t really, _really_ need his help.”

                Her grip tightened on Noie’s arm. “I’m being… hunted.” She hissed. “Some crazy angel’s taken it upon Himself to ‘rid mankind of that most ancient of evils’ and _oh my stars_ , I do not want to bite it to someone who talks that pretentiously. At least the drunk dude back in ‘96 with a table leg stake wasn’t gonna be so darn smug about it, you feel me?”

                This was all so much; Noie was hardly paying attention to what she was saying. _Dipper is Alcor_ … her mind flashed back to those Wikipedia articles, to Mizar, to Mabel, to _Dipper Pines_. It did make sense, actually. It made more sense than it would if he was just possessed, it-

                No. No! No, it can’t make sense!

                She shook her head again, faster. “No.” She said, and her voice sounded a lot more certain than she felt. “Th-that’s not possible. He’s just Dipper, he’s just my brother!”

                Lucy Ann cringed. “Please keep your voice down. Yeah, I get that I can’t just go ‘surprise, your brother’s a demon in disguise’ without backing it up. Don't worry, I can prove it.”

                “Prove it? How are you supposed to prove-“

                “Does he get headaches around magic?”

                Noie blinked. “What? How did you…? W-well yes, but how that prove anything?”

                “His human construct’s got a whole lotta enchantments around it to hold back his own magic. And there’s a _lot_ to hold back; anything more really stresses the whole system, threatens to break the dam. He told me it felt like a huge pressure inside his head.”

                Pressure inside his head… Noie had heard that exact line before. “He told you?”

                “Yeah. Like I said, he does this sometimes- hey, give me your phone and I’ll pull up the image search on Belle Sterling.” Lucy Ann chuckled. “There’s a photo of her and, ah, ‘Dipper Stirling’ near the top. He’s not real creative with names, is he?”

                “I’m not giving you my phone!”

                She shrugged. “Fair enough. Look it up yourself if you want. He’s not all that creative with his looks, either – he’s always got that blue pinetree hat on. And the Big Dipper birthmark on his forehead… has he kept that, too?”

                Noie could feel her heart thumping in her chest. She was breathing like she’d just run a marathon, trembling like she was standing in six feet of snow. This _couldn’t_ be true, _please don’t let it be true_ …

                “Dipper isn’t Alcor,” she repeated, and her voice sounded so small now. “He’s a real human. He’s my brother.”

                “He’s not a real human. I mean, he’s totally your brother, but he is _verrrry_ much not a human.” Her hand shifted on Noie’s arm. “Look, you want undeniable proof? Bring your brother out here, I need to talk to him.”

                “What are you going to do to him?”

                “I just want to talk. I just want to talk, like we did, okay?”

                “But, but he’s not Alcor!”

                Lucy Ann heaved a sigh. “He is, though. Look, I really don’t have time for this. Alcor’s the only one who can get rid of the angel for me – heck, his presence is the only reason I can hide in your yard, but, ah, I can’t do that forever.” She chuckled nervously. “Sooner or later I’m gonna run out of stuff to eat, and that’s gonna be your problem, too.”

                Noie didn’t know what to say to that. She was at an absolute loss for words, and she hardly moved when Lucy Ann let go of her wrist.

                “Look, you don’t have to believe me, but _please_ , I need you to let me talk to Alcor.” A note of desperation snuck into her voice. “Otherwise I’m either gonna lose my mind out here or get murdered by an angel, and I really don’t like either of those options, y’know? And it’s just a talk, just five minutes. If he’s not Alcor, it’s not gonna hurt him or anything.”

                Noie stepped back. Then she stepped back again. Lucy Ann followed her, a strained smile stretching across her face.

                “You’re gonna get Alcor, right?” It stretched further. “And you’re not gonna call the police because that would literally kill me?”

                She shook her head. “No, no, I’m not gonna call-“

                “Good, good. And you’re gonna get him?”

                With shaking hands, Noie found the door handle. She pushed it open.

                “Just bring him out here, okay? Five minutes?”

                She stepped inside – inside, where the vampire couldn’t follow - then gripped the handle and _slammed_ it shut. Turned the blinds until she couldn’t see the shadow of Lucy Ann’s face, couldn’t see anything of her, anything of _what she said_ …

                Her words echoed in Noie's mind, and she shook her head to clear them. “He’s not Alcor,” she told the blinds. Her voice trembled. “He’s not. He’s real. He’s real, he’s real, he’s… he’s real…”

                She trailed off, slowly, and without her words, the _silence_ was deafening. She was the only one awake; Dipper had to be asleep – oh, and if he was sleeping, she couldn’t wake him up, right? Grandpa had told her not to wake him up, so she couldn’t, it was just not possible, and he _was not Alcor anyway_ , so…

                …so what?

                So she should just go to bed.

                Forget about this.

                …

                At least for now, right? There was nothing she could do right now.

                Noie hesitated a moment longer. Then she turned, and walked back to the bedroom. To the bedroom, with _him_ in it… which was fine! It was fine because he was just her normal, human brother. Everything was _fine_.

                Her fists were clenched – she unclenched them. Her shoulders had raised – she forced them down. The pit in her stomach deepened, but try as she might, that wouldn’t go away.

                She took a deep breath, and opened the door. A light from the bottom bunk made her freeze.  _Dipper was awake_. With wide eyes, she watched him sit up, turn off his phone, and wave at her.

                “Hey,” he whispered.

                She just stared at him – at his face, at his smile, at his blue pinetree hat resting on the bedside table. She watched him lean forwards. She watched him clear his throat and speak, quietly.

                “I heard what happened.”

                Oh. _Oh,no…_

                “He shouldn’t talk to you like that.”

                …huh?

                “Who?” Noie managed. “Who shouldn’t talk to me like-“

                “Grandpa. Grandpa shouldn’t.” Dipper crossed his arms. “All that stuff about ‘taking yourself seriously’ – what’s that even supposed to mean?”

                He was talking about the argument with Grandpa. Noie blinked; that already felt so long ago, so far away, it was hard to summon up that same anger. Dipper's felt jarring.

                “Haha, yeah.” She tried for a laugh. “Who knows, right?”

                “He knows. He knows _better_ – you are responsible, Noie!”

                “Yeah, yeah, right.”

                “You are, though.” Dipper got up and walked over to her. “I mean, school stuff, sure, he’s got a bit of a point here, but everything else? Who does pretty much all the chores around here? Who makes the shopping lists?”

                Noie shrugged. “Grandpa says I don’t have to do that.”

                “Yeah, but when you don’t, he doesn’t remember anything! You see what I mean? He doesn’t even notice all the stuff you do and then he turns around and yells at you about being irresponsible!”

                “Yeah, I guess? I mean, I kinda started it this time.”

                “Even still, you’re right.” Dipper looked down. “He doesn’t treat you the same as me, and it makes me angry. I haven’t done anything special, I don’t want you to…”

                He trailed off abruptly – almost cut himself off, leaving something distinctly unsaid between them. Noie frowned at that.

                “You don’t want me to what?”

                “It’s nothing. He’s being unfair, that’s all I’m saying.”

                Noie hesitated, then put a hand on his shoulder. He was still warm from the bed. She pulled him into a hug, held onto that warmth, that comfort, and smiled as he hugged her right back. They stayed like that for a while, then Dipper turned his head, and spoke right into her ear.

                “I don’t know,” he murmured. “It makes me... worried, sometimes, that… that you’ll be jealous of me.”

                She snorted. “Jealous of you? Why?”

                “’Cause Grandpa’s always saying ‘Dipper doesn’t act this way’, ‘Dipper does this’, ‘Dipper does that’-“

                “That’s just Grandpa. I know you don’t think that.”

                “Yeah, but I still get compared to you like that, and… I don’t know, I don’t want it to come between us.” He gave a little laugh. “I try to even it up sometimes… but then it’s like, I wake up and the sink’s empty, you’ve already done the dishes at _one in the morning_ …”

                They both chuckled at that for a while, just holding each other. It was nice, but Noie can’t quite keep it going.

                “Yeah, well, I’m a sleeping nightmare, we both know that.” She squeezed him tighter, then pulled back to look him in the eye. “Dipper, I’m not gonna get jealous of you. Look, I don’t take it personally with Grandpa – he’s having a tough time right now with Granny, you know? He loves us both, he just…” Her smile went a bit crooked. “doesn’t have time for us both. It’s fine, I shouldn’t have-“

                Dipper cut her off with a crushing hug. His voice came in a thick whisper, saying, “ _It’s not fine_. It’s not fair to you.”

                His words put a lump in her throat; somehow they were both so comforting, and yet so terrifying. They made the floor drop out from under her feet, so she buried her head in his shoulder, anchored herself in his arms, and held on tight.

                “I love you, bro bro.” She said. The reply came immediately.

                “I love you too, Noie. You’re amazing.”

                Then he just held her, and let his words sit in the silence. His warmth, wrapping all around her like the most comforting blanket – so loving, so caring, so _real_.

               Noie squeezed him tighter. Dipper was real. _Dipper was real_. He was human, and he was her brother, and he was real… because he had to be. She needed him to be. If he was Alcor, what was she going to do without Dipper?

                _You’re amazing_. Noie’s mind went back to the yard, back to the cold hand around her wrist… and she shivered. Drew back. Tried to look him in the eyes, but didn’t quite make it.

                “Dipper,” she started, and hesitated. He waited so patiently as she opened her mouth, closed it, opened it again, then sighed. Rubbed her eyes. “I, uh… wow, I’m tired. I’m pooped! I’m going to bed.”

                He watched her brush past him. “ _You’re_ tired?”

                “Yeah, all the, uh, touchy-feelies. They got me all sorts of exhausted, and _stars_  I sound like Grandpa right now.”

                “I mean, I’m pretty sure he’s you in, like, fifty years.”

                “Gross, how dare you. I’m gonna be way cooler than Grandpa as an old person!”

                “I am ninety-nine percent certain you’re gonna tell people to get off your lawn.”

                “Hey, hey, this is disrespecting your elders!” She lobbed a pillow at him. “You just need to _get serious_ about yourself, young man!”

                Dipper cackled at that, and got into the bottom bunk. As soon as he couldn’t see her face anymore, Noie’s smile evaporated. She sat on top of her covers, and listened to the wind blowing outside. It was cold out there, and inside she was warm. She was too warm – in her chest, she was stuffy. Uncomfortable.

                Guilty.

                _You’re amazing_.

                She heard Dipper start a sigh, and end it with a sleepy laugh. “Goodnight, Noie.” He said. “I love you.”

                She didn’t reply, and after a second, she heard him turn over. Heard his breathing turn slow and heavy as he fell asleep.

                Noie couldn’t sleep. She couldn’t sleep if she tried.

                Her thoughts were a raging fire, and they were burning her at the stake.

 

* * *

 

                “I think it’s the damn pancake mix. What brand is this - the real cheap stuff?”

                “It's the same one we always get, Grandpa.”

                “Is it, now.” He scraped another pile of cooked flour onto a plate and glared at the packaging. “They must’ve changed something. These are coming out terribly.”

                Noie snorted. “Or maybe you’re just bad at it. Let me do it.”

                She rose from her seat, but he waved her down with a spatula.

                “No, no! You, sit. I only got one more to do, anyway – let’s see how I mess it up this time.”

                He poured a lumpy mixture into the saucepan, and next to Noie, Allie started to smile.

                “Smells lovely! What are you making, David?”

                “Pancakes, I told you.”

                “Oh, pancakes? You know, my mother used to make the most amazing pancakes.” She sat back, seemingly lost in memories. “She was from England, you see… they do them much thinner over there. With lemon and sugar.”

                Noie was already filling her plate with a layer of maple syrup. “The sugar part sounds lovely, Granny.”

                “Yes, it was. Quite lovely.” Abruptly, she turned to Dipper. “You loved it. You wanted her to make it all the time when you were younger.”

                “Uh… sure?”

                He pulled a face at Noie, who shrugged. Allie patted his head.

                “I could make it for you... We should have it again. It’s been too long.”

                She started to stand, but Noie caught her arm.

                “Hey! Let’s, uh, let’s do that some other day. Grandpa’s already cooking us pancakes.”

                Allie frowned in confusion. “Grandpa?”

                “Well, would you look at that!” David slid one complete pancake onto the pile. “That one turned out alright, didn’t it? Noie?”

                “What?”

                He walked over, and stuck it onto her plate. “Here,” He said, in that gruff undertone that was the closest his voice came to apologetic. “This one’s for you, kid.”

                “Thanks,” Noie said, and she gave him a smile. He shuffled away, grumbling something about how _he didn’t make enough for seconds_ _so don’t ask_ , and her smile turned to an eyeroll. This was the closest she was going to get to an apology, so she dug in before it got all soggy from the syrup.

                The table was quiet for a while, but for the sound of cutlery and the occasional lip smack.

                “Mmm.” Dipper said. “This is a good pancake. I mean, it’s in a bunch of pieces, but it’s good.”

                David grunted. “Eh, food is food. It’s not supposed to be pret-“

                _Tap tap tap_.

                The sound came from behind them. from the sliding glass door still covered by blinds. Noie blinked – what was that? Was there something in the backyard- and her stomach dropped as she realised _oh, no, there was, wasn’t there._

David turned around in his chair.

                “Eh? What was-”

                “I didn't hear anything!” Noie blurted out. She gave him a wide smile. “Thanks for the breakfast, Grandpa, I really-“

                _Tap tap tap_

                “-love the sound of birds in the morning, that sounds like a bird. Man, nature’s cool, amirite?”

                Allie frowned. “Who’s at the door? David?”

                “No one's there, Granny. Just a bird, nothing to- no, don’t get up! Grandpa!”

                He was at the door; she jolted up, but he’d already opened it. “If it’s a damn bird, I don’t want it pecking my glass. Hey, shoo! Get outta here!”

                Noie’s breath caught in her throat, but she just watched him wave his arm and shout for a bit, then slam it closed and walk back to his seat. Dipper raised an eyebrow at him.

                “What was it?”

                “I dunno, I didn’t see anything. Probably flew off as soon as I opened the thing.”

                Thank the stars, he didn’t see anything. Noie relaxed in her seat, but then-

                _Tap tap tap._

                “It’s back?”

                “Someone’s at the door, David!”

                Noie jumped out of her seat. “I can deal with it! You stay, Grandpa!”

                “What are you gonna-“

                “Uno momento!” She said, and dashed outside before anyone could argue with her. With the sliding door shut tightly behind her, she turned around and immediately spotted Lucy Ann peeking out from behind the house.

                “There you are.” The vampire gave her a fanged smile. “I was worried I’d keep getting the old guy.”

                “ _What are you doing_?”

                “I was about to ask you the same question. I thought you were gonna let me talk to Alcor.”

                “I never said that.”

                Her expression turned distinctly unfriendly. “So you’re not gonna help me?”

                “No, I never said that either!” She clenched her fists. “Look, things are kinda complicated right now. I can’t bring him out here, because-“

                “Aren’t you having breakfast? Look, just make an excuse, get him out-“

                “I can’t do that!”

                “Why not?”

                “He’s not… um… he’s not here.”

                “He’s not eating breakfast with you? Even better! Then just-“

                “He’s sick.”

                “Oh, yeah? How sick?”

                “Well, he’s- no, it doesn’t matter how sick he is! He’s sick, okay! A-and he’s not here!”

                Lucy Ann raised an eyebrow. “He’s not in the house?”

                “He’s… at a friend’s house.”

                “I thought he was sick.”

                “He is. He’s sick and he’s at a friend’s house.” She crossed her arms. “Both those things can be true.”

                At that moment, the door cracked open. “Hey, Naomi,” her grandfather’s voice made her jump. “I'm gonna let Dipper gonna steal your pancake if you stay out there too long. Come inside.”

                Noie cringed at the look on Lucy Ann’s face. “Uh… okay! Just one more second!”

                “Wow, he can steal your pancake while being both sick _and_ at a friend’s house?” Her grip tightened on the wall; her claws left marks in the paint. “Impressive. I dunno why I needed to convince you he’s a demon if he can do that.”

                She backed away. “Look, I’m sorry, I just gotta – I gotta go to school soon, alright?”

                “Oh, _sure_. Don’t let my impending death get in the way of something important like high school.”

                “I-I’m not gonna let you die, I just- stop tapping on the glass, okay? You’re gonna get caught.”

                “You’re worried Alcor’s gonna catch me, aren’t you?” She bared teeth at Noie as she slid the door open. “Fine. I don’t need your help, I’ll get to him on my own. _Asshole_!”

                Noie slammed it shut and staggered back. She glanced over at the table, at the three shocked faces staring up at her. David was frowning.

                “Did I hear someone say ‘asshole’ out in the yard?”

                “Parrots.” Noie stretched a smile. “They’re amazing birds, aren’t they? I love birds.”

                “Excuse me?”

                “No, that was dumb, that was… I was joking, it was the neighbors. They were just having an argument.”

                Dipper leaned forwards. “Are you okay, Noie?”

                “What? Haha, I’m fine!”

                _Tap, tap, tap_. Her smile crumpled at the edges.

                “Never been better!”

                “I’ve gotta find out what’s making that noise,” David grumbled into his empty plate. “Gonna drive me insane.”

                “Well, uh, don’t look too hard, haha! Dipper!”

                “What?”

                “We have to go to school soon, don’t we!”

                “Yeah, in a little-“

                “Bus comes soon!” Noie pulled his chair out. “Come on, give me your plate! Go get dressed!”

                “What? But I’m already-“

                “No you’re not. Look at that stain on your shirt!” She poked his chest. “Is that maple syrup?”

                 “…Oh.”

                “Yeah, you can’t be walking around school like that! Go get dressed again! Andale, andale!”

                He got up and shuffled off. Noie dumped the plates in the sink, cast one last glance at the glass door, and hurried after him.


	9. Chapter 9

               It was somewhat awkward on the bus.

               Dipper was staring at Noie, and Noie was staring out of the window. Houses and cars whipped past her field of vision, but she wasn’t really paying much attention; she was listening to Dipper shuffle his feet. Clear his throat. Figure out how to phrase an inevitable question.

               She stared past the scenery, and tried to figure out how to answer him when it came.

               Finally, Dipper leaned forwards. A little inhale, then: “Noie?”

               “Yeah, I’m fine! Doing great! Noooo worries here!”

               “I didn’t say I was worried.”

               “Oh? Haha, even better then!” Noie glanced at Dipper; he was giving her an odd expression. “What?”

               “You’ve been acting weird all morning. Are you okay?”

               “Weird all morning? Hah! I act weird all the time!”

               “Noie.”

               She rolled her eyes.

               “Noie, I’m serious.”

               “Hi serious, I’m dad.”

               “Noie…”

               “What!” She glared at him. “You’re doing that dumb thing where you’ve decided I’m not okay, so you’re just gonna keep asking the same question over and over until I give you the answer you want. Knock it off.”

               “But-”

               “I’m fine, knock it off.”

               He frowned. “But No-”

               “I’m fine, knock it off.”

               “Bu-”

               “I’m fine, kno-”

 _“Can you stop!”_ Dipper snapped. “For like a second? And let me say something?” He sat back, rubbing his temples. “Look, I’m not trying to be annoying, but I know when something’s up with you, okay?”

               “Oh, you’re a mindreader now, huh?”

               “No, but I am your brother, and I know how you act when you’re upset about something.”

               “And I’m sure that’s not wrong, ever.”

               “It started when there was that noise in the yard.” He said, and a bolt of hot panic shot through her. “There was someone yelling... were they yelling at you, or-”

               “There’s no one in the yard! I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

               Dipper blinked. “Okay?”

               “There wasn’t! There was just- look, you’re just...” Noie took a breath, and crossed her arms. “Look, I’m done talking about this, okay? I wasn’t upset before, but I am now, so hey, I guess your Noie-Upset-O-Meter works _perfectly_! Nice job being right, dude.”

               He just stared at her, completely baffled. “Whoa, what? I was just asking what was upsetting you, Noie. I’m not trying to win a contest or anything… seriously, are you okay?”

               She just glared at the seat in front of her, stubbornly refusing to meet his eyes.

               “Noie? You know you can talk to me about anything, right?”

               She felt a flush of heat rising in her cheeks, and she turned completely away from him to look out the window again.

               If only that were true, she thought. But noooo, there had to be stupid angels and stupid vampires and stupid demons coming in and messing everything up.

               Now she didn’t even know what she could tell him.

               Noie narrowed her eyes. If only she could. He was smarter than her, he’d probably come up with some kind of plan or strategy or at least an idea on how to straighten out this whole mess… he’d have _something_ instead of just winging it and hoping for the best, you know?

               It was a nice thought. But Noie heard Dipper give a long, frustrated sigh, and she was brought out of these nice thoughts, back into the hard reality of the situation.

               “Alright, fine,” Dipper grumbled. “You don’t have to talk about it if you really don’t want to, but it _is_ kind of aggravating when you get like this, okay? I know something’s wrong when you start snapping at me, so either it’s my fault and we should talk about this, or it’s not my fault, and you’re just taking it out on… ugh.”

               There was a pause, and Noie glanced over at him. He was kneading his forehead.

               “Nevermind.” He said, after a time. “It doesn’t matter. You don’t have to talk about it if you don’t want to, okay? That’s all I was trying to say.”

               With that, he went quiet, and Noie felt a twinge of guilt as she listened to the rumble of the bus engine in the ensuing silence. She cleared her throat.

               “I’m not mad at you, Dipper.”

               “Okay.”

               She cringed at his flat tone. “I’m not. And I didn’t mean to be snappy at you, bro, I just… got a lot on my plate right now, alright? I’m sorry. It’s… it’s complicated.”

               “Okay.” He sat back. “You know, you can tell me even if it’s complicated.”

               Noie pressed her lips together and said nothing. After a moment, he cleared his throat and turned to her with a faint smile.

               “Hey, when’s the, uh, presentation again?”

               “Presentation?”

               “For our posters? In history? The one that’s worth assessment points?” At her blank look, he took out his phone. “Nevermind, I’ll look it up-”

               “Ohhh, the, uh, um...” she snapped her fingers. “the stupid group project one, right?”

               “Yeah.”

               “That’s Friday, I think.”

               “This Friday?”

               “Yeah! I think. I dunno, I’m not good with dates but that sounds right to me. You should check.”

               Dipper tapped his phone. “It’s this Friday.”

               “Oh, voila! I shoulda never doubted myself!” She chuckled. “Well, posters look good, so it seems like we’re all set for that.”

               “Yeah, thanks for all the help.”

               “Right back atcha, Dippindots!”

               “Dippingdots?”

               “What? It’s got a ring to it, like Dipping Sauce! Or Dippy! Or Dippida-Dippida-Dip-DipDip!”

               “What? That last one isn’t- Don’t I have enough nicknames, Noie?”

               “You never have too many nicknames... Doop! Yeah! Hey, that rhymes with boop!” She poked his nose and giggled at his spluttering. “I love you too, you dork!”

               They passed the rest of the bus ride like this, laughing and talking about nothing of consequence. Their stop came up, and they got off, started walking to school with the same lighthearted chatter between them.

               That was when Noie caught sight of the parking lot. And the police cars. And on the far end, as bright as the sun in the sky, the angel standing guard by the school gates.

               Oh.

_Oh, shit._

               She stopped dead, and Dipper glanced back at her.

               “Noie? You alright?”

               “Wha- oh, yeah, I’m fine!” She didn’t take her eyes off the angel. “I just… uh... one sec, bro!”

               “One second for what?”

               This was the problem with not having a plan. And also being a forgetful human being. And just generally having a lot going on - a mix of all three of these factors, really.

               See, Noie sort of forgot until she laid eyes on the angel that it _definitely_ almost sent Dipper to the hospital yesterday; she couldn’t say how she knew, but it was staring at her, and also it did weird things to him earlier - it just gave her a really bad feeling, okay? She didn’t trust it one bit.

               To get into school, though, she was going to have to walk Dipper right past it… which sounded like a bad idea.

               What was she going to do now? Go home? No, Dipper wouldn’t go with her - that’s a dumb plan. She needed to think of something else, something else…

               “Noie?” A tap on her arm. “I dunno what you’re doing, but it’s hot out here, and I don’t want to be late for class. Can we-”

               Noie snapped her fingers. “Class! That’s on the other end of campus, right!”

               “Um, yeah? So we should-”

               “Wait, Dipper!” She grabbed his arms. “Let’s, uh… um… I know a shortcut!”

               “A shortcut?”

               “Yeah! Have I never showed you?”

               He frowned. “No, I don’t know a shortcut, but the gates are right there-”

               “Nahhh, trust me, bro, this is way faster!” She all but dragged him away from the entrance to the parking lot. “Come on! This’ll be fun!”

               “Okay? As long as it gets us to class on time… where are we going?”

               Noie peered at the tall fence surrounding their campus. It was just a lot of chainlink, she could climb this… they needed to get out of view of the front gates, though. Maybe somewhere near the back of a building?

               The figure of the angel disappeared behind a wall, and Noie nodded to herself. She could make this work.

               This was fine.

               And hey, look, a gate! Noie tugged on it.

               “Aah, shoot. Locked.”

               Dipper crossed his arms. “Was this supposed to be the shortcut?”

               “No!” She kept walking. “It’s, uh, further on!”

               “Noie, I think we should’ve just gone through the gates. That’d be just as fast…” He frowned as he watched her stop by a secluded spot behind the math building. “and also, this is definitely going to get us in trouble. Noie.”

               “Only if we get caught!”

               “Noie, I really don’t have a good feeling about this.”

               She tested her weight on the fence. Stuck her foot in, and hoisted herself up; the metal rattled a little bit, and she giggled.

 _“Noie!”_ Dipper hissed. “This is a really bad idea, you’re gonna get caught!”

               “Aww, c’mon, nobody’s here! Who’s gonna catch us?”

               “There are windows all down that building, Noie! And policemen _actively patrolling for intruders right now...”_ He pinched his nose. “Ohhh, my stars, this is such a bad idea… Look, you do you, but I’m gonna head back to the gates and-”

               “No, no, no, wait!” She hopped off the fence and cut him off with her brightest smile. “C’mon, bro bro, this’ll take five seconds!”

               “The front gate would’ve taken five seconds too! This is literally just pointlessly risky, and I’m not-” He took a step to the side, and frowned when she copied him. “Okay, why are you being so weird right now? Why don’t you want to use the front gates?”

               “Well, uh…” She shrugged. “I mean we’re gonna be late if we head all the way back, so why don’t we just hop on over now, right? Haha, it’ll be fun!”

               “But why’d we even come over here in the first place? We could’ve literally gone through the front gates, but you don’t want to do that for some reason and-”

               “Dipper!” She clamped a hand on his shoulder. “Look, uh, can you just trust me on this one? Please?”

               “Why? What’s going on? Why are you acting so-?”

               “Look! Uh, trust me, I’d love to explain, but why don’t we just do that in the AC, huh? Man, it’s hot outside, isn’t it?”

               She grinned at Dipper, but he didn’t grin back. After a long moment, he heaved a sigh, and brushed her hand away.

               “Okay, fine. _Fine.”_   He shuffled towards the fence. “You will owe me an explanation though, Noie.”

               Noie’s smile turned to a grimace. “Uh, you got it, bro bro. I’ll explain all the things, don’t you worry! Trust me, it’ll make _soooo_ much sense.”

               Then she stood back and watched him climb, her mind scrambling to piece together that promised explanation. From one crisis to another… still, at least that had taken care of the angel problem. For today. Maybe.

               She stepped towards the fence as Dipper reached the top, leaned a hand on the bar and stared through the rattling links.

               That still left a host of other problems, like the vampire problem, and the Grandpa problem, and the demon problem - which was not a problem in and of itself since _Dipper was not a demon,_ so that was pretty much the same thing as the vampire problem. So hey, if she thought about it like that, there was one less problem on her plate!

               Just in time to fit another one.

               “Hey, you! Get down from there, _now!”_

               Noie jerked up at the sound of yelling, and her blood ran cold as she saw two policemen charging right for them. _Shit. Shit shitshitshitshit-_

               “I said _get down! Now!”_

               Dipper let out a yelp and fell off the fence, landing sideways on the campus side and almost immediately getting pinned by an officer. Noie let out a gasp; she opened her mouth to call his name, but the other man stabbed a finger at her.

               “And you! Get over here!”

               She blinked. “Over the- the fence?”

               “Yes! Over the fence! Do it _now!”_

               “O-okay-”

                _“Now!”_

               Noie shot a wide-eyed glance at Dipper - he was being handcuffed on the ground - before gathering her wits and quickly climbing up and over. The second her feet touched down on the other side, she found herself seized by the other officer.

               His grip was so tight it made her gasp in pain. She watched Dipper get yanked back to an upright position, and exchanged a terrified look with him. He’d gone sheet white, and there was grass in his hair and dirt all over his shirt from how he’d landed.

               “Um,” Noie could barely stammer out her words as they cuffed her. “What, um- what did we do that-that requires this level of arresting? I mean, we j-just climbed a fence, we didn’t- I didn’t think this would be, like, heh, the death penalty or something… you know? Hah…”

               She gave a little chuckle at the end of that, even though absolutely nothing about this was funny.

               The officers didn’t respond. Wordlessly, they yanked her and Dipper forwards; Dipper winced from the shoulder he’d fallen on.

               Noie gulped. “Hey, whoa, it looks like he hurt himself there! Dipper, you alright?”

               He looked shocked beyond words, eyes darting all over the place, mouth half open but not making so much as a peep. The officers… Noie strained to look at them, but she could only catch a glimpse of straight faces and dark sunglasses before she stumbled and had to turn back to keep pace.

               Where were they headed? Noie thought the office at first, but she saw they were headed for the back door to the Math building. The school bell rang just then; Noie gave another weak laugh at this.

               “Are you, uh, taking us back to class? Teaching us a lesson? Cause I will _certainly_ not be touching that fence again, no siree, nope, never again… uh, nada? That’s also a nope, and there’s non, that’s French… Nein?” They led her through the door. “Nein is also a way to say that, it’s German-”

                “Girl.” One of the officers said in an utterly impassive tone. She cringed.

               “Ja?”

                “Stop talking.”

               That made her gulp. “...That’s good advice. You’re very smart, I am saying all the things and I should say less things. I’ll do that. Right now. Yeah.”

               The officers led them upstairs, and Noie couldn’t help but notice this was in the direction of her Math class.

               “Wait, are we actually-” She felt a painful squeeze on her arm, and grit her teeth. “Right, right. No talking. Got it.”

               Down the completely barren hallway they went, their footsteps echoing on the tile. Even though class had started, there wasn’t a sound from any of the rooms they passed.

               Not even so much as a whisper. Noie was starting to get a bad feeling about this; she glanced over at Dipper, and could see the same pit forming in his stomach, the same suspicious frown creasing down his brow.

               A moment later, he met her gaze. Mouthed something, but she had no idea what he was saying. She shrugged at him and he tried again, only to be shoved forwards, rather roughly, by the officer.

               “Ow.” He made a face at the man. “Uh, my shoulder actually really hurts, could you-”

 _“Silence.”_ They both said, in unison. Then they stopped as one, in front of the door to their Math classroom.

               Despite class supposedly having started already, there was not a sound to  be heard from behind it. Noie found herself very much dreading being led into this room; the fact that the handle started to turn by itself, seemingly being opened from the inside without a word from either of the officers, was not reassuring in the slightest.

               It swung outwards, revealing a row of empty desks where her classmates were supposed to be sitting. She gulped, and tried to stand her ground when she was nudged forwards, but the officer didn’t even seem to notice the resistance; he moved, and she had to stumble along with him to keep her footing.

               Into the classroom. Into the empty classroom, devoid of students, devoid of teachers... and yet, not devoid of their presence. It was filled with unzipped pencilcases, schoolbags under chairs, textbooks on tables turned to a certain page. The teacher’s computer was on, and there was half a math problem scribbled on the whiteboard in green; underneath it was a marker of the same colour, capped, and placed neatly on the tray.

               Neatly. Noie could only frown; everything was so neat, so normal, yet so eerie, so _empty..._ like they’d walked out into the field for a fire drill, or something.

               (She’d have heard a fire drill, though. What was going on? What was-)

_“Agh.”_

               A noise from beside her. She craned her neck to see Dipper crumple forwards, his lips pulled back in a grimace.

               “Dipper!” Noie made a lunge for him; the officer held her back. “Let me go! What did you do to Dipper? _What the fuck is going on?!”_

 _“One moment, please,”_ chorused the two officers. Noie struggled harder as the room began to brighten with a strange light.

               “One moment for _what?_ Ohhh my stars, you guys are totally possessed or something… l-look, just let us go! We’re just kids, I don’t know what you want with us! I don’t…” The light was getting intense; she squeezed her eyes shut. “ _Oh my stars, just let us go, just leave us alone I just want you to leave us alone please…”_

               She trailed off, and could only stare at the sheer brightness glowing on the back of her eyelids. There was silence, deafening, terrifying silence…

               And then, the light faded, and the officers spoke again.

_“I am here.”_

_“Open your eyes.”_

               Noie felt a strange pull on her eyelids at that - gentle and easy to resist, but unnerving nonetheless. She squeezed them shut, and after a few moments the force abated.

_“Or do not. I will not compel you.”_

               The officers spoke from behind her, but she could make out a large, blobby brightness directly in front of her. She frowned, and then opened her mouth to ask-

 _“What’s going on?”_ One officer stole the question right off her tongue. Then the other cleared his throat. _“Yes, I can see your confusion. I am well aware that the logistics of this meeting have been handled in a more… spontaneous fashion than I had envisioned - you humans can be difficult to account for at times. Your propensity for such spontaneity, it is truly fascinating to observe; it is not beyond me, however, to see why lesser beings find this quality to be… very frustrating.”_

               The words passed through Noie’s ears like words from another language - logistics of a meeting? Propensity for spontaneity? Lesser beings? What was this guy on about? Just what was she dealing with, here?

               Curiosity got the better of her, and she peeked open her eyes to catch a glimpse of the brightness standing in front of her. It was very, very bright… but also it was shaped like a human, and clad in knight’s armour, and leaning on a great big sword and _oh she knew exactly what this was and it was bad._

               “You’re the-!” Noie tried to stab a finger at him. “You’re the angel guy! F-from the gate!”

               The figure of the angel did not move, did not make a noise, did not react at all to Noie’s words, but the two officers let out a synchronised chuckle, and replied in tandem.

_“The angel guy from the gate. I have known more dignified addresses.”_

               “What?”

_“It is no matter. Your directness is amusing to me, that is all.”_

               Her expression soured. “So glad this is funny to you,” she muttered, eyes cutting sideways to exchange a glance with Dipper. What she saw, though, was her brother still slumped forwards, his limp body held upright by the other officer. Her stomach dropped, her heart skipped a beat, and she whipped back around to shout-

 _“Your brother is unharmed,”_ Spoke the officers. _“Unconscious from my influence, yes, but rest assured, he will wake.”_

               “Rest assured? I dunno, I don’t feel too assured, actually! How do I know you’re not just-”

_“Lying to you?”_

               Noie scowled. “Okay, can you not do the weird mindreading thing you’re doing right now? It’s super creepy, and super-”

 _“Annoying, noted.”_ A pause. _“Ah, and I did it again just now. My apologies, you humans communicate on a far more physical basis than I am accustomed to.”_ The officer holding Dipper gave a wry smile. _“Or, as you may have noticed, am directly able to.”_

               She raised an eyebrow at him, then turned back to look at the actual figure of the angel, standing so very, very still at the front of the classroom. Not once had she seen it bend its legs, or turn its head, or unclasp its hands from the hilt of its sword; she was starting to wonder if it could move at all.

               That… raised a question that Noie didn’t want to ask. The angel didn’t bring it up for her, this time; it waited quietly, patiently, expectantly, as she figured out how to word it.

               “So, uh,” Noie cleared her throat. “If this is all so hard for you to set up… why did you- well, why’d you do it, then?”

 _“For one reason,”_ said one officer. Then spoke the other:

_“I need your help.”_


	10. Chapter 10

_“I need your help.”_

                Noie stood there for a moment, staring up at the towering figure of the angel before her. This thing... needed _her_ help? Seriously? Before she could put all these questions into words, the angel spoke again.

_“I see you are bound.”_

                “Huh?” Noie frowned as she watched an officer start to fiddle with her handcuffs. “Oh, yeah… you did that.”

_“I did not bind you.”_

                “What? You did - you know, with the whole possessing two dudes to drag us up here?”

 _“Possession?”_ There was a gentle laugh. _“No, no, you misunderstand my methods. A demon possesses; an angel merely guides.”_

                ‘Guides’? Really? Noie fought to keep the skepticism off her face, but the angel seemed to pick up on it; both the officers cleared their throats and swiftly continued:

_“It is much better. It is not a subjugation of will; it is a request, one they can simply deny if they are not willing. I guide them towards a goal, but I do not puppeteer their bodies like demons do - why would I, when humans are reasonably capable of performing my tasks under their own volition?”_

                Noie heard the angel chuckle again. There was a _click,_ and the cuffs around her wrists came loose.

 _“Yes, sometimes they perform it in a less than optimal way, but possession is so unnecessary, so crude, so… controlling, and I do not like to use it on my chosen people.”_ The officer drew back from Noie, absently fiddling with the cuffs in their hand. _“I prefer you to be free.”_

                With that, the angel fell silent. She rubbed her wrists, still frowning, still feeling like something was terribly, terribly off… but where to even start?

                Dipper was still sagging in the other officer’s grip; she shuffled closer to him, and cast her eyes around the whole classroom.

                “Where’s… where’s everyone in my class?”

_“I evacuated everyone in the building for this discussion. They will return when it is concluded.”_

                Noie made a face. “Why’d you do that?”

_“For their own safety. I wanted to minimise any potential human casualties that could occur.”_

                “Um, what?” A startled laugh came out of her. “What on earth do you think I’m gonna do to you, dude?”

                Both the officers snorted at that.

_“No, no, you are not capable of posing such an existential threat. Obviously I was not referring to you.”_

                One pointed to the other, at the drooping figure of Dipper Argenta held firmly in his grasp.

 _“I was referring to_ that _.”_

                There was an edge to the Angel’s voice, there, a coldness that sent shivers down Noie’s spine. She watched Dipper groan, watched his head loll to the side, and she couldn’t help but notice how tightly the officer was gripping his arms. Her heart sank at the sight of white knuckles, and kept on sinking as the angel continued.

_“If your concerns have been sufficiently assuaged, I would like to enlist your help with a demon I have unexpectedly encountered while-”_

                “He’s not a demon!” Noie snapped. The officers’ eyebrows shot up; the angel was clearly taken by surprise.

_“Not a demon? Tell me what you mean when you say that.”_

                “I mean he’s not!” She glared right at its true form. “He’s not! I don’t know what’s going on right now with everyone trying to tell me he’s some kind of demon - he’s just not, he’s a normal human guy! He’s my brother, my twin brother! How the fuck could he be a demon i-if- well, it just doesn’t make sense, okay!”

                Noie paused for breath, and noticed both the officers had started to smile. Her glare darkened.

                “What? What’s so funny?”

 _“The vampire.”_ As one, they chuckled and shook their heads. _“I was confused about why you were jumping to such an unexpected conclusion, but now I see where you were mislead.”_

                “Huh?”

_“It would be patently ridiculous to suggest that your mortal brother is a demon in disguise. Of course he would be a normal human child.”_

                Noie blinked. “But what-”

 _“Unfortunately - and this is why your family has gained some unwanted attention - his body is being possessed by an ancient and powerful demon.”_ The officers’ faces twisted into a grimace. _“His name is Alcor the Dreambender, and he loves nothing more than to twist humans into his playthings.”_

                “But… but he’s not-”

_“I already told you, your brother is not Alcor. Your brother is not who I am referring to here. Your brother is normal; the Dreambender is a monster.”_

                Noie just shook her head. She could hardly form words. “No, no, that’s… he’s not-”

 _“You mean to say his body is not possessed?”_ The officers crossed their arms. _“I forgive you for denying me, but why do you deny your own truth?”_

                “N-no?” She stepped back. “What? I’m not-”

_“Then why do you deny what your eyes have seen, what your ears have heard? You are a smart young human, in possession of all your mortal senses; tell me, what do they say of Alcor the Dreambender?”_

                                The yellow eyes. The magic headaches. _Mabel Pines,_ all those wikipedia articles, and everything Lucy Ann said-

                No, wait! Stop it! _Stop it!_

                                All these thoughts were careening nonstop across her mind and Noie tried to block them out, tried to think of something else, _anything else,_ but her mind was fixed on Dipper and her eyes wouldn’t stop staring at Dipper and her foot caught on the leg of a chair and she stumbled and the angel...

                The angel was there. Quick as a flash, an officer reached out and caught her before she fell. She yelped, pushed off his hands and backed away.

                He remained perfectly still, and Noie could see his expression had turned strangely solemn. When the angel spoke again, it was just through the one man, and it was quiet.

 _“I did not want to put you through that.”_ He said. _“You must forgive me if this conversation causes you distress; this is not a situation any human would want to find themselves in… especially one already shouldering burdens she finds hard to bear.”_

                He looked up at Noie, and her breath caught in her throat.

 _“You are young, child. But I see how old this life has forced you to become.”_ His face creased with sympathy, and he sighed. _“The adults in your life, they have turned their eyes to the screen and not to their responsibilities, and you have stepped up in their absence. Because you needed to. Because your brother needed you to.”_

                Noie didn’t know what to say; she managed a faint, “What?” and stared at the officer as he began to walk forwards.

 _“I see that all. I see how deeply it’s hurt you, and how wholly it’s blinded you to the problems you cannot fix: you have learned to ignore them, for if you cannot fix them, nobody will fix them for you, will they?”_ He stepped right up to her. _“And a demon? A child like you cannot hope to stand against such a catastrophic force of evil. What is there for you to do but to simply put it out of mind, to deny the reality and thus the terror, to focus on the issues that are in your power to change?”_

                With wide eyes, she watched him reach out, and put a hand on her shoulder.

 _“I can see all of this. I can see you, child, and… I am sorry. This is not the path you were meant to walk.”_ He shook his head, his brow furrowing. _“No, I see this is not the first time the Dreambender has played his games with the ones you love.”_

                Noie’s breath caught in her throat. Not the first time? What did he mean? She’d barely even heard of this demon guy up until now; when was this ‘other time’ he… _oh._

                Oh, right.

                Oh, she did know what he was referring to.

 _“You don’t remember the first time, it seems.”_ His words dropped like stones in her gut. _“You were too young.”_

                “You’re talking about what happened with… w-with my father, right?” Her heart was pounding at her throat; she swallowed hard. “So Dipper was right, it was Alcor? O-or he had something to do with it? What happened!”

                He just gave a sad smile, and patted her shoulder.

                “Do you know what happened?” She watched him turn away from her. “Hello?”

                The officer walked up to Dipper, hands clasped behind his back. His boots were loud on the carpet.

 _“What happened in the past...”_ he started, and then paused. He stopped in front of her brother. He squared his heels. He cleared his throat, and spoke again: _“...is not good for humans to dwell on.”_

                With two fingers, he lifted Dipper’s chin, and turned his face from side to side as if examining it.

_“I came here to set my people free from the past, to rid their world of evils that have plagued them since time immemorial… And I will free you, too.”_

                “Free me?”

 _“Yes.”_ Dipper groaned; the officer took his hand away. _“I will free you and all of humanity from the whims of this demon. His games of possession are twisted indeed, but they present an opportunity to bring about his downfall. I am already making the necessary arrangements; it should only take a couple of days before everything is in place.”_ His eyes flitted up to her. _“But in the meantime, I do need your help.”_

                Noie’s frown had been deepening as he spoke, and now she took a step back.

_“It is nothing major, but it is important. The Dreambender is a powerful being, and were he to break out of his construct and uncover our plans, he would be… upset with us.”_

                She made a face. “Okay? What am I supposed to do about that?”

                                “ _As I am sure you have noticed, I have a particular effect on victims of possession.”_ The officer paced around Dipper, but she found her eyes sliding over to the angel’s true form, standing motionless in the front of the classroom. _“My presence stirs the demon within them; it invokes from their possessor such a primal surge of rage that they cannot help but distrust me. You can see, I am sure, how this would make it difficult for me to protect your brother from any threats that may arise before I am able to return him to a normal state of mind.”_

                “Threats? Someone’s gonna attack him?”

 _“No, no, nothing quite so physical. But the mind here is… complicated. How would I best describe it to you?”_ For a moment, he seemed to grapple for an analogy. _“It is as if the mind stands on thin ice. A vast darkness lurks beneath, and any reminders of that darkness would be like cracks beneath his feet. If it thinks too much of magic, of demons, of Alcor, your brother will fall through and be consumed.”_

                Noie remembered the headaches he’d been getting over the past few days, the ever-present forehead rubbing he’d do whenever Alcor came up. She gulped, hard.

                “Consumed? So wait, he’d be-”

_“And remember this.”_

                Abruptly, he turned and fixed her with a _look_ that sent shivers down her spine.

_“Anything that calls itself a friend of Alcor is trying to destroy your brother. Think of that before you make any regrettable decisions.”_

                At that he fell silent, just watching Noie. That expression he was wearing… nothing about it looked unpleasant, but there was something so inexplicably off-putting that it made her want to melt into the floor. She nodded, hoping it was an answer he was waiting on, and in the moments afterwards all she could think about was

                                An empty bunk bed. A lonely bus ride. A world without Dipper beside her.

                                Could you imagine that world?

                                Could you imagine what her days would look like? Who would she even talk to if she didn’t have her brother? Who would she have to rely on?

                                Could you imagine if she had to climb past his empty bed every night to go to sleep? Staring up at the ceiling, with nothing but her thoughts and the deathly silence where she used to hear him snoring… Imagine how long she’d lie there, missing him so much it would ache, torturing herself with all the scenarios where he’d still be with her, if only she’d just done something a little differently…

                                Could you imagine how that would feel if it was all her fault?

                Could you imagine!

_Could you imagine._

                Noie didn’t notice she was being hugged until she blinked and found herself wrapped up in someone’s embrace. It wasn’t the officer - it was her teacher, her math teacher she barely knew the name of, and she realised she was crying when she felt her gasp catch on the lump in her throat. She was full blown _sobbing_ and long past the point of holding it in and when the teacher squeezed her tight she wrapped her arms around the lady and buried her face in her shoulder and for a moment she didn’t even care how embarrassing this was, she wanted to stay hidden away here forever…

 _“Shhh, child, don’t cry.”_ Spoke her teacher in that same, dreamy tone. _“I am here now.”_

                Noie froze up.

_“Do not worry yourself about this demon any longer. Let me fix what you cannot. Let me take care of this.”_

                “I-I…” Her voice shook too hard to talk. The teacher gave another squeeze.

 _“In a few days, everything will be back to normal. I will send for you then. In the meantime,”_ she let go and stepped back. _“You may carry on as if it already is.”_

                Noie squinted her eyes at the light, then opened them wide at the sight of her classmates filing into the room. In an orderly line, they took their chairs, picked up their pens, and started scribbling down notes on their homework. She looked for Dipper, and found he’d been placed in his assigned seat; he was slumped over the desk like he’d merely fallen asleep.

 _“Take your seat, please.”_ The teacher flashed her a smile as she took her place by the whiteboard. _“I thank you for agreeing to help me, and again, I apologise for this abrupt interruption to your schedule. I have taken steps to mitigate its effects - unfortunately, I cannot erase your brother’s memories, but I hope this is otherwise a seamless transition.”_ She waved. _“Good luck with your studies, child.”_

                With that, she uncapped a marker and turned to finish the problem left half solved on the board. The tall, glowing figure of the angel pulsed once, then winked out of existence. Noie stood there, staring at the space it had occupied, still frozen in shock.

                What… just happened?

                “Now x is- what is x?” The teacher’s voice - it sounded normal now - made her jump. “Can anyone raise their hand and… Naomi, why are you out of your seat?”

                Noie saw the whole class turn to her. She blinked.

                “Is everything okay?”

                “Everything…? Um, I- um...” She shook herself. “No, nevermind! Sorry!”

                Then she scuttled over to her desk. The teacher frowned.

                “Alright, then. Well, who can tell me what x is? Somebody else other than Audrey, please.”

                “No, wait, excuse me?” Audrey was sitting in the front row, nervously fluttering her wings. “Can I, um, can I go to the nurse, please? I don’t feel well…”

                Noie frowned at her textbook, already open on her desk. Her math book had today’s problems filled out in a handwriting so neat it looked like a font. She glanced over at Dipper and saw he was lying on a similarly arranged spread of pages, with his backpack zipped up and stashed under his chair.

                She wrinkled her nose. When’d he have the time to set up all that? Weird.

                This whole thing was just… just weird.

                Before she could think on that much more, the bell rang and startled her. Dipper jumped too; he clenched up tight, then spread back out with a long, painful groan.

                “Already?” Noie’s teacher made a ‘huh’ sound as she stood up. “Time flies. Well, everyone make sure you’ve turned your homework in at the basket - with your names on it, please! Tomorrow we’ll be going over…”

                Noie tiptoed over to her brother. He looked normal enough - clearly in the middle of a bad headache, yes, but still _normal._ Not a demon, not doing anything weird, just Dipper. His face was down on the desk while one hand rooted around his chair for a backpack, and she’d meant to ask if he was okay but the words didn’t come when she opened her mouth; she just stood there, staring at him, taking in this one moment of normality.

                After everything that had just happened, everything she’d been told… she could feel a lump rising back up in her throat.

                And that was when Dipper spoke. He muttered something she didn’t quite catch, so Noie blinked back a blurriness in her eyes and leaned forwards.

                “Hey, Di- ugh.” Her voice came out hoarse; she cleared it. “Hey Dipper! Morning, sleepyhead, um… how’s that book pillow feeling?”

_“I can’t believe you.”_

                Noie heard that, and her blood ran cold. Her smile froze on her face.

                Oh… wow. He did not sound very happy, did he.

                “What do you mean, bro br-”

                “You know exactly what I mean!” He sat up, shooting her a furious look - and did his eyes flicker for a second there? “I told you we were gonna get in trouble taking that ‘shortcut’, I told you!”

                She backed away. “I-”

                “But you didn’t listen to me - no, it’s worse, you had to go and rope me into this and I…” Dipper paused. “Wait, are you crying?”

                “What? No!” She abruptly turned and started shoving textbooks into her bag. “We gotta go to history, Dipper. We’ll be late.”

                “History? Wait, we’re in… math class?”

                He sounded confused now; Noie glanced back and saw him looking around the classroom like he’d just noticed where he was.

                “But wait, we were… I thought we were getting arrested? How did we get back here? What happened while I was out?”

                Noie opened her mouth, then closed it and just shrugged. She tensed up at a hand on her shoulder.

                “No, seriously, what happened?” Dipper was frowning at her; she could see it from the corner of her eye. “Noie? Are you okay?”

                The concern in his voice made her cringe, even more than when he was shouting at her. “I…” She gripped her bag until her knuckles went white, then cleared her throat again. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

                Then she zipped it up and slung it over her back, ignoring Dipper’s startled “Huh?”

                “We off to history class yet?” Keeping her head firmly turned away from him, Noie tried for a weak smile. “I think we’re gonna have to run again. Boo. I’ll, uh, I’ll race you.”

                “Noie?”

                She started walking. “What’s that?”

                “Hey, wait, Noie!” Papers shuffled, and Dipper caught up to her with his bag half-open and his arms full of textbooks. “I just-”

                She opened the door for him. “After you.”

                “Oh, uh, thanks? Noie-”

                “I bet these would make nice drums.” Noie banged out the Nario theme on a row of passing lockers. “Dun dun dun dun-dun-dun, dun!”

                “Noie, can you stop for a second?” Dipper rubbed his shoulder. “What did you mean by… you don’t know what I’m talking about? You don’t remember - you know, there was a whole thing where you wanted to take a shortcut for some reason…?”

                He was looking to her face for an answer; she kept it blank.

                “No?” Dipper frowned. “Are you sure?”

                “I don’t know what you’re talking about,” she repeated, then: “Hey, do you wanna watch me do a cartwheel?”

                “But if you don’t remember… and I just woke up in math class - so was that all a dream, o-or something?” He was so lost in thought, he didn’t notice Noie pull off a cartwheel right next to him. “It didn’t feel like a dream…? But yeah, why would we randomly go off on a shortcut and then… get arrested? That doesn’t make sense…”

                He trailed off, and Noie just watched him think it over, watched his expression sink further into an annoyed confusion - he could _tell_ he was missing something, she knew, and that made her stomach twist a little.

                “Um,” she started. “Maybe it’s like that vampire dream you had?”

                “Huh, I mean, that… that might be it. It didn’t have her in it, though.”

                Noie could only shrug at that. They kept on walking, out the door and through the grassy courtyard, and finally, Dipper broke the silence with a sigh.

                “Noie?”

                “Yyyyyes?”

                “Um, I think that must’ve been a dream, then.” He grimaced. “I’m really sorry for shouting at you over it.”

                Noie blinked, then shook her head. “No, no, you don’t need to say sorry-”

                “Yeah, I do, I was all yelling at you about stuff that… well, didn’t happen, I guess.” Dipper tried to laugh, but it came out as a groan. “Um… that’s embarrassing, I’m sorry. This has been a really, really weird week for me.”

                She didn’t trust herself to say anything to that. After a moment of looking down at his shoes, he continued.

                “I just… I haven’t really been getting anywhere with the vampire thing, Noie. And new, random stuff like this keeps cropping up - it feels like it’s getting worse.” He rubbed his head. “I’ve been getting headaches for days now, but they don’t even seem to be related to magic anymore, they just… happen. Stuff’s just been happening lately, and I don’t know what to do about it.”

                Noie watched him out of the corner of her eye. She watched him yawn, watched him rub his reddened eyes and the bags, deep and purple, under them. She hadn’t really noticed how exhausted he’d been looking lately, but now it was all too apparent.

                “I just…” Dipper started, hesitated, and then sighed. “I don’t know. I don’t know, Noie.”

                He went quiet, and for a time their footsteps were the only sound to be heard. Noie ran through a million little words of comfort in her head, but they all seemed to come up so short, and came off so shallow in her head. Maybe it was because she already knew what she wanted to say to him; no other words fit so precisely than the ones she wasn’t allowed to say.

                After a time, she put a hand on Dipper’s shoulder, and tried out a pale imitation.

                “Um, Dipper?”

                “Yeah?”

                “I’m sure… I’m sure we’ll get to the bottom of this.” Noie gave him a thin smile. “Don’t worry too much about it, okay? I’m sure we’ll find a way to get you back to normal real soon.”

                He didn’t look entirely convinced. “Yeah, I hope that’s what happens. What if we don’t, though?”

                “Oh, I’ve got a feeling we will.”

                “You’re being… awfully optimistic about this. Even more than usual.”

                “Yeah, cause you’re being even more of a downer than usual - I gotta balance you out!” She ruffled his hair. “C’mon, everything’ll work itself, bro. Mystery Twins are on the case!”

                “Hah…” Dipper’s laugh cut short as she leaned on him. “Wait, Noie- Ow, ow, ow, Noie!”

                “What? Are you okay?”

                “Yeah, yeah, sorry, it’s just… my shoulder.” He rubbed it, frowning. “Did I sleep on it wrong, or something? _Ow…_ ”

                Noie’s heart caught in her throat. Oh, right, his shoulder… _Oh, shit, his shoulder, he was going to put it together any second now, shit shit shit-_

                Fortunately for her, however, there came a noise from the building up ahead. Dipper looked up, and his eyes went wide.

                “Wait, is that the late bell?”

                “Yeah, sounds like it.”

                “Oh, shoot, Noie! We’re late!” He took off sprinting for the classroom, waving at her frantically with his good arm. “Come on! We gotta run!”

                Noie blinked. Then she followed after him, yelling, “Wait up, Dipper!” and thanking the stars for that little stroke of luck with the bell.

                Maybe she could keep this up for a few days. Maybe everything would turn out okay after all.

                Thoughts like those didn’t make the pit in her stomach go away, no, but it was nice to finally have something to hold onto.


End file.
